Then the recovered artist learned to whom Archias owed his escape from being sentenced to death and having his property confiscated.  Papers, undeniably genuine, had proved what large sums had been advanced by the merchant during the period of the first Queen Arsinoe’s conspiracy, and envious foes had done their best to prejudice the King and his sister-wife against Archias.  Then the gray-haired hero fearlessly interceded for his friend, and the monarch did not remain deaf to his representations.  King Ptolemy was writing the history of the conqueror of the world, and needed the aged comrade of Alexander, the sole survivor who had held a prominent position in the great Macedonian’s campaigns.  It might be detrimental to his work, on which he set great value, if he angered the old warrior, who was a living source of history.  Yet the King was still ill-disposed to the merchant, for while he destroyed Archias’s death sentence which had been laid before him for his signature, he said to Philippus:  “The money-bag whose life I give you was the friend of my foe.  Let him beware that my arm does not yet reach him from afar!”

Nay, his resentment went so far that he refused to receive Hermon, when Eumedes begged permission to present the artist whose sight had been so wonderfully restored.

“To me he is still the unjustly crowned conspirator,” Philadelphus replied.  “Let him create the remarkable work which I formerly expected from him, and perhaps I shall have a somewhat better opinion of him, deem him more worthy of our favour.”

Under these circumstances it was advisable for Archias and Daphne to remain absent from Alexandria, and the experienced couple could only approve Hermon’s decision to go to Pergamus as soon as Erasistratus dismissed him.  A letter from Daphne, which reached Thyone’s hands at this time, increased the convalescent’s already ardent yearning to the highest pitch.  The girl entreated her maternal friend to tell her frankly the condition of her lover’s health.  If he had recovered, he would know how to find her speedily; if the blindness was incurable, she would come herself to help him bear the burden of his darkened existence.  Chrysilla would accompany her, but she could leave her father alone in Pergamus a few months without anxiety, for he had a second son there in his nephew Myrtilus, and had found a kind friend in Philetaerus, the ruler of the country.

From this time Hermon daily urged Erasistratus to grant him entire liberty, but the leech steadfastly refused, though he knew whither his young friend longed to go.

Not until the beginning of the fourth week after the operation did he himself lead Hermon into the full sunlight, and when the recovered artist came out of the house he raised his hands in mute prayer, gushing from the inmost depths of his heart.

The King was to return to Alexandria in a few days, and at the same time Philippus and Thyone were going back to Pelusium.  Hermon wished to accompany them there and sail thence on a ship bound for Pergamus.