The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-08

his face was a red scar caused by the
 sword of a Massagentian warrior-one of
 those people in battle with whom his | father had fallen The lofty brow, the
 aquiline nose, the thin lips of the man
 bore the stamp of great power and inn
 moderate pride. This man was Cam
 byses, master of more than half the
 known world, son of the great Cyrus and
 the destined husband of Nitetis. -.. Nitetis looked upon the King and 1 thought she had never seen so much
 manliness and royalty. The King looked
 upon Nitetis and saw in her a consort | worthy to be the mother of a race
 of Kings. The proud monach and the
 proud princess were well met, and be- fore, togeth CT, they entered the gates
 of the great city their admiration for
 each other had turned into the passion ate love of two strong natures.
 | Nitetis treated the King as an equal in rank and asked of him that she be | not obliged to live with his other wives, but have a separate establishment. This
 the King readily granted and assigned to her palace in the famous hang ing gardens of Babylon, where she had
 her own attendants and where she was
 to live until, sufficient length of time having elasped and she having ben | instructed in the religion of the Per
 sians, she should be legally married to Cambyses Especially did Nitetis ask ! that she be not obliged to obey the chief eunuch, most important func- i tionary at the Persian court and one whose word was law to the wives and was granted her. Cambyses was so
 madly in love with the stately Egyptian
 that he declared that he would cut short the usual time required before a foreign princess could be wed to a Persian King-three months, he de- clared, was long enough forshim to
 wait for the hand of his bride.
 | The Kings mother, Cassandane, and
 his sister, the willful and frolicsome Atossa, were delighted with the Egyp- tian and every day Nitetis went in her litter, surrounded by her guards to | visit the two royal ladies. It did not take Nitetis long to discover that Atossa was in love with hir cousin,
 Darius, and that Darius returned her | love. Now the King looked upon botl | Darius and Bartja with dstrust | Prince Bartja was immensely popular with the people and everything he did seemed to awaken in tile subjects of
 Cambyses greater admiration for the | prince than was awakened for the
 King, though the King might perform greater feats, of war and chase.
 Cambyses was jealous of Bartja and
 the dark prophecies which the Magi had
 read to him, as well as his own dreams
 warned him that one day the throne of
 Persia was to be occupied, not by q
 son of Cambyses, but by Darius. So far no son had been born to the King but
 he looked forward to his union with
 Nitetis with double pleasure, as he hoped it would make him the father of
 an heir to his throne as well as give
 to him the woman he most loved on
 earth.
 But dark days were impending for
 the King and for the Egyptian princess.
 The chief eunuch, Boges, entered into
 a conspiracy with Phaedime, one of the
 legal wives of Cambyses. woman of
 noble race who before the coming of the Egyptian, had been all powerful with the King and who was now madly
 Jealous as she saw her power dis
 appearing before the influence of the 1 stranger.
 1 One day Nitetis received most pitiful letter from her mother in Egypt Tan chot had been steadily growing more
 feeble in health since the departure of
 her sister. She still thought that Darius would one day return to claim her as his bride and that she would live to be great and happy. But 1t was only too evident that she was afflicted with consumption and that her life was wearing out. Only