This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS, Part 2.
By Georg Ebers
According to the law of Egypt, Zopyrus had deserved death.
As soon as his friends heard this, they resolved to go to Sais and try torescue him by stratagem. Syloson, who had friends there and could speakthe Egyptian language well, offered to help them.
Bartja and Darius disguised themselves so completely by dyeing their hairand eyebrows and wearing broad-brimmed felt-hats,—that they couldscarcely recognize each other. Theopompus provided them with ordinaryGreek dresses, and, an hour after Zopyrus' arrest, they met thesplendidly-got-up Syloson on the shore of the Nile, entered a boatbelonging to him and manned by his slaves, and, after a short sail,favored by the wind, reached Sais,—which lay above the waters of theinundation like an island,—before the burning midsummer sun had reachedits noonday height.
They disembarked at a remote part of the town and walked across thequarter appropriated to the artisans. The workmen were busy at theircalling, notwithstanding the intense noonday heat. The baker's men wereat work in the open court of the bakehouse, kneading bread—the coarserkind of dough with the feet, the finer with the hands. Loaves of variousshapes were being drawn out of the ovens-round and oval cakes, and rollsin the form of sheep, snails and hearts. These were laid in baskets, andthe nimble baker's boys would put three, four, or even five such basketson their heads at once, and carry them off quickly and safely to thecustomers living in other quarters of the city. A butcher wasslaughtering an ox before his house, the creature's legs having beenpinioned; and his men were busy sharpening their knives to cut up a wildgoat. Merry cobblers were calling out to the passers-by from theirstalls; carpenters, tailors, joiners and weavers—were all there, busy attheir various callings. The wives of the work-people were going outmarketing, leading their naked children by the hand, and some soldierswere loitering near a man who was offering beer and wine for sale.
But our friends took very little notice of what was going on in thestreets through which they passed; they followed Syloson in silence.
At the Greek guard-house he asked them to wait for him. Syloson,happening to know the Taxiarch who was on duty that day, went in andasked him if he had heard anything of a man accused of murder having beenbrought from Naukratis to Sais that morning.
"Of course," said the Greek. "It's not more than half an hour since hearrived. As they found a purse full of money in his girdle, they thinkhe must be a Persian spy. I suppose you know that Cambyses is preparingfor war with Egypt."
"Impossible!"
"No, no, it's a fact. The prince-regent has already receivedinformation. A caravan of Arabian merchants arrived yesterday atPelusium, and brought the news."
"It will prove as false as their suspicions about this poor young Lydian.I know him well, and am very sorry for the poor fellow. He belongs toone of the richest families in Sardis, and only ran away for fear of thepowerful satrap Oroetes, with whom he had had a quarrel. I'll tell youthe particulars when you come to see me next in Naukratis. Of courseyou'll stay a few days