"Towards you, I own," replied the Persian, "I have been perfidious; but to my master I have been faithful."—"As vanquished, then," replied Hydaspes, "what punishment, think you, that you deserve?"—"The same," returned the other, "which my master would inflict upon one of your captains who had fallen into his power, after having proved his fidelity to you."—"If your master," replied the Ethiopian, "were truly royal, and not a tyrant, he would praise and reward him; and excite the emulation of his own people, by commending the good qualities of an enemy: but it seems to me, good sir, that you praise your fidelity at the expence of your prudence, after having adventured yourself against so many myriads of my troops."—"Perhaps," replied Oroondates, "in regard to myself, I have not been so imprudent as may at first appear. I knew the disposition of my sovereign—to punish cowards, rather than to reward the brave. I determined therefore to hazard every thing, and trust to Fortune, who sometimes affords unexpected and improbable successes in war. If I failed and escaped with life, I should at least have it to say, that nothing in my power had been left untried."
Hydaspes, after listening to his words, praised him, sent him to Syene, ordered his physicians to attend him, and all possible care to be taken of him. He himself soon after made his public entry into the city, with the flower of his army. The inhabitants of all ranks and ages went out in procession to meet him, strewed crowns and flowers[17] of the Nile, in his path, greeting him with songs of victory.
He entered the city on an elephant, as on a triumphal chariot, and immediately turned his thoughts to holy matters and thanksgivings to the gods. He made inquiries concerning everything worthy of his curiosity, particularly about the origin of the feasts of the Nile. They shewed him a tank which served as a nilometer, like that which is at Memphis, lined with polished stone, and marked with degrees at the interval of every cubit. The water flows into it under ground, and the height to which it rises in the tank, shews the general excess, or deficiency, of the inundation, according as the degrees are covered or left bare. They shewed him dials, which, at a certain season of the year, cast no shade at noon; for, at the summer solstice, the sun is vertical at Syene, and darts its rays perpendicularly down, so that the water,[18] at the bottom of the deepest wells, is light.
This, however, raised no great astonishment in Hydaspes; for the same phenomenon happens at the Ethiopian Meröe. The people of Syene loudly praised their festival and extolled the Nile, calling it Horus (the year), the fertilizer of their plains—the preserver of Upper Egypt—the father, and, in a manner, the creator of the Lower—as it brings annually new soil into it, and is from thence, possibly, called Nile,[19] by the Greeks.
It points out, they said, the annual vicissitudes of time—summer by the increase, and autumn by the retiring of its waters—spring by the flowers which grow on it, and by the breeding of the crocodiles. The Nile then, is, they say, nothing else but the year, its very appellation confirming this, since the numeral letters which compose its name, amount to 365 units, the number of days which make up the year.[20] They extolled also its peculiar plants and flowers, and animals, and added a thousand other encomiums. "All these praises," said Hydaspes, "belong more to Ethiopia, than to Egypt. If you esteem this river as the father of waters, and exalt it to the rank of a deity, Ethiopia ought surely to be worshipped, which is the mother of your god?"
"We do worship it," replied the priests, "both on many other accounts, and because it has sent you to us, as a preserver and a god." After recommending them to be less lavish in their praises, he retired to a tent which had been prepared for him, and devoted the rest of the day to ease and refreshment. He entertained, at his own table, his principal officers, and the priests of Syene, and encouraged all ranks to make merry. The inhabitants of Syene furnished herds of oxen, flocks of sheep, goats and swine, together with store of wine, partly by way of gift, partly for sale. The next day he mounted a lofty seat; and, ordering the spoil to be brought out, which had been collected in the city, and on the field of battle, distributed it amongst his army, in such proportions as he thought their merit deserved. When the soldier appeared who took Oroondates, "Ask what you please," said the king.—"I have no occasion to ask anything," he replied. "If you will allow me to keep what I have already taken from the Viceroy, I am sufficiently rewarded for having made him prisoner, and preserved him alive, according to your commands." And with this he shewed a sword belt, a scimitar richly jewelled of great value, and worth many talents; so that many cried out, it was a gift too precious for a private man, a treasure worthy of a monarch's acceptance. Hydaspes smilingly replied—
"What can be more kingly than that my magnanimity should be superior to this man's avarice? Besides, the captor has a right to the personal spoils of his prisoner. Let him then, receive as a gift from me, what he might easily have taken to himself, without my knowledge."
Presently those who had taken Theagenes and Chariclea appeared. "Our spoil, Ο king!" said they, "is not gold and jewels, things of little estimation among the Ethiopians, and which lie in heaps in the royal treasures; but we bring you a youth and a maiden, a Grecian pair, excelling all mortals in grace and beauty, except yourself, and we expect from your liberality a proportionate reward."—"You recall them seasonably to my memory," replied Hydaspes. "When I first saw them, in the hurry and confusion in which I was engaged, I took but a cursory view of them. Let some one bring them now before me, together with the rest of the captives."
An officer was immediately despatched for them to the place of their confinement, which was among the baggage, at some distance from the town. They inquired, in their way to the city, of one of their guards, whither they were being conducted. They were told that the king Hydaspes desired to see the prisoners. On hearing the name, they cried out together, with one voice—"Ο ye gods!" fearing till that hour lest some other might be the reigning king; and Theagenes said softly to Chariclea—"You will surely now discover to the king everything which relates to us, since you have frequently told me that Hydaspes was your father."
"Important matters," replied Chariclea, "require great preparation. Where the deity has caused intricate beginnings, there must needs be intricate unravellings. Besides, a tale like ours is not to be told in a moment; nor do I think it advisable to enter upon it in the absence of my mother Persina, upon whose support, and testimony, the foundation of our story, and the whole of our credit, must depend; and she, thanks to the gods I hear, is yet alive."