midnight
exclaimed Cambyses . `` But if he wants to deceive me , let him remember that where the head of a son of Cyrus is about to fall , a Greek head has but very little chance . '' The Greek 's calm and noble manner impressed Cambyses favourably , and his hostility was entirely overcome when the stranger revealed to him that he was Phanes , the famous commander of the Greek mercenaries in Egypt , and that he had come to offer his service to Cambyses . Phanes now related how , on approaching Babylon by the royal post , just before midnight , they heard some cries of distress , and found three fierce-looking fellows dragging a youth towards the river ; how with his Greek war-cry he had rushed on the murderers , slain one of them , and put the others to flight ; and how he discovered -- so he thought -- the youth to be none other but Bartja , whom he had met at the Egyptian court . They took him to the nearest station , bled him , and bound up his wounds . When he regained consciousness , he told them his name was Gaumata . Then he was seized by fever , during which he constantly spoke of the hanging gardens and of his Mandane .