“Were there a gate to enter—”
“I would creep through and sting.”
“Nitetis alone—?”
“Smerdis, too.”
“How would you fare, then, with Meranes? And Alyattes—how would he fare? Hatred, torment, and death!”
“To sting all to sleep—all to sleep—all....”
“The three.... And there is left Alyattes, the satrap’s son, who may one day be satrap—Sadyattes aiding!... I see him riding, riding, the great satrap—shining with jewels, living long and splendidly, giving his mother honour who set him, true-born in the true-born’s place!”
“Meranes! Meranes!”
“Hopeless now to make him see or hear or know—she has been gaining so long!... Who will sit here by the fountain when you are gone, strangled and cast into the sea, fed to the fishes there? One will sit here, bred by the Nile, younger than you—Where will be Alyattes? But Smerdis will be here, to be satrap after the satrap!”
“Water for the thirsty—revenge for the smitten and scorned—”