But now farewell, my children; our young heroes must look at this our city of Sais; before parting, however, I will repeat to them what the malicious Siuionides has sung of a good wife: "Dear to her spouse from youth to age she grows; Fills with fair girls and sturdy boys his house; Among all women womanliest seems, And heavenly grace about her mild brow gleams.
A gentle wife, a noble spouse she walks, Nor ever with the gossip mongers talks.
Such women sometimes Zeus to mortals gives, The glory and the solace of their lives." "Such is my Ladice! now farewell!" "Not yet!" cried Bartja.

"Let me first speak in defence of our poor Persia and instil fresh courage into my future sister-in-law; but no! Darius, thou must speak, thine eloquence is as great as thy skill in figures and swordsmanship!" "Thou speakst of me as if I were a gossip or a shopkeeper,"-- [This nickname, which Darius afterwards earned, is more fully spoken of]--answered the son of Hystaspes.

"Be it so; I have been burning all this time to defend the customs of our country.

Know then, Ladice, that if Auramazda dispose the heart of our king in his own good ways, your daughter will not be his slave, but his friend.

Know also, that in Persia, though certainly only at high festivals, the king's wives have their places at the men's table, and that we pay the highest reverence to our wives and mothers.