CHAPTER X.
Amasis received his son with a burst of laughter, and without noticing Psamtik's pale and troubled countenance, shouted: "Did not I tell thee, that a simple Egyptian would find it no easy task to catch such a Greek fox?
I would have given ten cities to have been by, when thy captive proved to be the stammering Lydian instead of the voluble Athenian." Psamtik grew paler and paler, and trembling with rage, answered in a suppressed voice: "Is it well, my father, thus to rejoice at an affront offered to thy son?
I swear, by the eternal gods, that but for Cambyses' sake that shameless Lydian had not seen the light of another day.

But what is it to thee, that thy son becomes a laughing-stock to these beggarly Greeks!" "Abuse not those who have outwitted thee." "Outwitted! my plan was so subtly laid, that...
"The finer the web, the sooner broken." "That that intriguing Greek could not possibly have escaped, if, in violation of all established precedents; the envoy of a foreign power had not taken it upon himself to rescue a man whom we had condemned." "There thou art in error, my son.

We are not speaking of the execution of a judicial sentence, but of the success or failure of an attempt at personal revenge." "The agents employed were, however, commissioned by the king, and therefore the smallest satisfaction that I can demand of thee, is to solicit from Cambyses the punishment of him who has interfered in the execution of the royal decrees.

In Persia, where men bow to the king's will as to the will of a god, this crime will be seen in all its heinousness.

The punishment of Gyges is a debt which Cambyses owes us." "But I have no intention of demanding the payment of this debt," answered Amasis.