Lives of Alcyone

not cease to plot in order to gain the throne. His chief endeavor was
to assassinate Sirius, and twice he all but succeeded. On the
second of these occasion it was really Alcyone who saved her
husband’ s life, for she had a vivid dream which induced her to
send to him with the greatest haste as he sat in judgement, warning
him that an attack on him was about to be made. Her dream or
forecast described the man who was about to make the murderous
attack with such accuracy that the king was instantly able to
recognise him when he came before him, and immediately ordered
his guards to seize and examine him. The weapon with which it had
been his intention to murder the King was found upon him, and as
he was not able to account for its possession his shrift was a short
one.
Under the King’ s intelligence rule, and with the peace which
he had procured for it, the kingdom rapidly advanced in power and
wealth. Again at the suggestion of Mercury, now drawing to extreme
old age, Sirius sent for his half-brother, and endeavoured to come to
some sort of arrangement with him. He told him quite plainly that he
regarded the kingdom as a charge committed to his care, and that
he could not therefore yield it to anyone else, but he offered him the
governorship of a certain division of the country under himself. The
claimant, however declined to accept this, and said that he would be
satisfied with nothing less than the whole. However, in the course of
interviews which he had had with Sirius, this half-brother had fallen
in love with Alcyone, and for the purpose of being near her he
presently offered to accept the governorship, not of a distant
province, but of the capital city. This Sirius willingly gave him.
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