Her body will be torn to pieces by dogs and vultures, after the manner of the Persians.

Woe unto them who rob the innocent of happiness here and of rest beyond the grave!" Bartja had not been told the contents of this letter, but promised to take it with him; he then, amid the joyful shouts of the people, set up outside the city-gate the stones which, according to a Persian superstition, were to secure him a prosperous journey, and left Babylon.
Nebenchari, meanwhile, prepared to return to his post by Nitetis' dying-bed.
Just as he reached the brazen gates between the harem-gardens and the courts of the large palace, an old man in white robes came up to him.

The sight seemed to fill Nebenchari with terror; he started as if the gaunt old man had been a ghost.

Seeing, however, a friendly and familiar smile on the face of the other, he quickened his steps, and, holding out his hand with a heartiness for which none of his Persian acquaintances would have given him credit, exclaimed in Egyptian: "Can I believe my eyes?
You in Persia, old Hib?
I should as soon have expected the sky to fall as to have the pleasure of seeing you on the Euphrates.

But now, in the name of Osiris, tell me what can have induced you, you old ibis, to leave your warm nest on the Nile and set out on such a long journey eastward." While Nebenchari was speaking, the old man listened in a bowing posture, with his arms hanging down by his side, and when he had finished, looked up into his face with indescribable joy, touched his breast with trembling fingers, and then, falling on the right knee, laying one hand on his heart and raising the other to heaven, cried: "Thanks be unto thee, great Isis, for protecting the wanderer and permitting him to see his master once more in health and safety.