"The gods forbid!" replied Hydaspes; "but why should you say this?"
"Because," said she, "the gods have decreed that he is to live with me, or die with me."
"I commend your humanity," replied the king, "in that having so hardly escaped yourself, you are desirous of saving a foreigner, a Greek, a fellow-prisoner, and of the same age, with whom, from a communion in misfortunes, you must have contracted some degree of familiarity and friendship: but he cannot be exempted from the sacrifice; religion will not permit our country's custom to be in everything curtailed, neither would the people suffer it, who have with difficulty been persuaded by the goodness of the deities to spare you."
"Ο king!" said Chariclea, "for perhaps I may not presume to call you father, since the mercy of the gods has saved my body, let me implore their and your clemency to preserve my soul:[14] they know with how much justice I call him so, since they have so closely interwoven the web of my destiny with his. But if his fate is irretrievably determined; as if a foreigner he must necessarily suffer, I ask only one favour—-Let me with my own hand perform the sacrifice; let me grasp the sword—even like a precious treasure—and signalize my fortitude before the Ethiopians."
Hydaspes was astonished and confounded at this strange request. "I know not what to make," said he, "of this sudden change in your disposition: but a moment ago you were anxious to save this stranger, and now you desire permission to destroy him as an enemy with your own hands; but there is nothing either honourable or becoming your sex or age in such a deed: granting that there were, it is impossible; it is an office exclusively belonging to the priests and priestesses of the Sun and Moon, the one must be a husband; the other is required to be a wife; so that even the fact of your virginity would be sufficient to preclude this unaccountable request."
"There need be no obstacle here," rejoined Chariclea, blushing, and whispering her mother, she said, "give but your consent and I already have one who answers to the name of husband."—"We will consent," replied Persina, smiling, "and will bestow your hand at once, if we can find a match worthy of yourself and us."—"Then," said Chariclea, raising her voice, "your search need not be long, it is already found."
She was proceeding (for the imminent danger of Theagenes made her bold, and caused her to break through the restraints of maiden modesty), when Hydaspes, becoming impatient, said—"How do ye, Ο gods, mingle blessings and misfortunes! and mar the happiness ye have bestowed upon me! ye restore, beyond all my hopes, a daughter, but ye restore her frenzy-stricken! for is not her mind frenzied when she utters such inconsistencies? She first calls this stranger her brother, who is no such thing; next, when asked who the stranger is, she says she knows not; then she is very anxious to preserve him, as a friend, from suffering; and, failing in this, appears desirous of sacrificing him with her own hands; and when we tell her that none but one who is wedded can lawfully perform this office, then she declares herself a wife but does not name her husband. How can she indeed? She whom the altar proves never to have had a husband; unless the unfailing ordeal of chastity among the Ethiopians has, in her case only, proved fallacious, dismissing her unscathed, and bestowing upon her the spurious reputation of virginity; upon her, who with one breath calls the same person her friend and enemy, and invents a brother and a husband who have no existence? Do you, then, my Queen, retire into your tent, and endeavour to recall this maiden to her senses: for either she is frenzied by the deity, who is approaching the sacrifices, or else she is distraught through her unexpected preservation. I will have search made for the victim, due to the gods, as an offering in her stead; meanwhile I will give audience to the ambassadors of the different nations, and will receive the presents brought in congratulation of my victory." So saying, he seated himself in a conspicuous place near the tent, and commanded the ambassadors to be introduced, and to bring what gifts they had to offer.
Harmonias, the lord in waiting,[15] inquired whether they should all approach without distinction, or a few selected from every nation; or whether he should introduce each separately.
"Let them come separately in turn," said the king, "that each may be questioned according to his deserts."
"Your nephew, then, Merœbus," said Harmonias, "must first appear; he is just arrived, and is waiting outside the troops for his introduction."