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Recollecting these answers, Cambyses spoke fiercely to Prexaspes,
saying, "Judge now thyself, Prexaspes, whether the Persians tell
the truth, or whether it is not they who are mad for speaking as they
do. Look there now at thy son standing in the vestibule - if I shoot
and hit him right in the middle of the heart, it will be plain the
Persians have no grounds for what they say: if I miss him, then I
allow that the Persians are right, and that I am out of my mind."
So speaking he drew his bow to the full, and struck the boy, who
straightway fell down dead. Then Cambyses ordered the body to be
opened, and the wound examined; and when the arrow was found to have
entered the heart, the king was quite overjoyed, and said to the
father with a laugh, "Now thou seest plainly, Prexaspes, that it
is not I who am mad, but the Persians who have lost their senses. I
pray thee tell me, sawest thou ever mortal man send an arrow with a
better aim?" Prexaspes, seeing that the king was not in his right
mind, and fearing for himself, replied, "Oh! my lord, I do not
think that God himself could shoot so dexterously." Such was the
outrage which Cambyses committed at this time: at another, he took
twelve of the noblest Persians, and, without bringing any charge
worthy of death against them, buried them all up to the neck.
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