The Jew, horrified at these, to him, sinful and unnatural words, shook his head disapprovingly; but the Greeks overwhelmed the old man with congratulations, deeming him much to be envied.  His great happiness made Aristomachus look younger by many years, and he cried to Rhodopis:  “Truly, my friend, your house is for me a house of blessing; for this is the second gift that the gods have allowed to fall to my lot, since I entered it.”—­“What was the first?” asked Rhodopis.  “A propitious oracle.”—­“But,” cried Phanes, “you have forgotten the third; on this day the gods have blessed you with the acquaintance of Rhodopis.  But, tell me, what is this about the oracle?”—­“May I repeat it to our friends?” asked the Delphian.

Aristomachus nodded assent, and Phryxus read aloud a second time the answer of the Pythia: 

  “If once the warrior hosts from the snow-topped mountains descending
   Come to the fields of the stream watering richly the plain,
   Then shall the lingering boat to the beckoning meadows convey thee
   Which to the wandering foot peace and a home will afford. 
   When those warriors come from the snow-topped mountains descending
   Then will the powerful Five grant thee what they long refused.”

Scarcely was the last word out of his mouth, when Kallias the Athenian, springing up, cried:  “In this house, too, you shall receive from me the fourth gift of the gods.  Know that I have kept my rarest news till last:  the Persians are coming to Egypt!”

At this every one, except the Sybarite, rushed to his feet, and Kallias found it almost impossible to answer their numerous questions.  “Gently, gently, friends,” he cried at last; “let me tell my story in order, or I shall never finish it at all.  It is not an army, as Phanes supposes, that is on its way hither, but a great embassy from Cambyses, the present ruler of the most powerful kingdom of Persia.  At Samos I heard that they had already reached Miletus, and in a few days they will be here.  Some of the king’s own relations, are among the number, the aged Croesus, king of Lydia, too; we shall behold a marvellous splendor and magnificence!  Nobody knows the object of their coming, but it is supposed that King Cambyses wishes to conclude an alliance with Amasis; indeed some say the king solicits the hand of Pharaoh’s daughter.”

“An alliance?” asked Phanes, with an incredulous shrug of the shoulders.  “Why the Persians are rulers over half the world already.  All the great Asiatic powers have submitted to their sceptre; Egypt and our own mother-country, Hellas, are the only two that have been shared by the conqueror.”

“You forget India with its wealth of gold, and the great migratory nations of Asia,” answered Kallias.  “And you forget moreover, that an empire, composed like Persia of some seventy nations or tribes of different languages and customs, bears the seeds of discord ever within itself, and must therefore guard against the chance of foreign attack; lest, while the bulk of the army be absent, single provinces should seize the opportunity and revolt from their allegiance.  Ask the Milesians how long they would remain quiet if they heard that their oppressors had been defeated in any battle?”