Now I thank you for your hospitality and demand that you escort me and those with me back to my camp, since it seems that here we are in the midst of enemies." "Before you go, Idernes," I shouted, "know that you and your lying captain shall pay with your lives for your slander on me." "Many will pay with their lives for this night's work, O thief of pearls and seals," answered the Satrap, and turning, left the hall with his company.
Now I searched for Amada, but she also had gone with the ladies of Peroa's household who feared lest the feast should end in blows and bloodshed, also lest she should be snatched away.

Indeed of all the women in the hall, only my mother remained.
"Search out the lady Amada," I said to her, "and tell her the truth." "Yes, my son," she answered thoughtfully; "but what is the truth?
I understood it was Bes who first gave the name of the lady Amada to the Great King.

Now we learn from your own lips that it was you.

Wise would you have been, my son, if you had bitten out your tongue before you said it, since this is a matter that any woman may well misunderstand." "Her name was surprised out of me, Mother.

It was Bes who spoke to the King of the beauty of a certain lady of Egypt." "And I think, my son, it was Bes who told Peroa and his guests that he and not you had given the King her name, which you do not seem to have denied.