1But when that letter was delivered, Nabdalsa, as it happened, tired from bodily exercise, was resting on his couch, where, after reading Bomilcar's words, first anxiety and then, as usually happens to a troubled mind, sleep overcame him. 3He had a certain Numidian as steward of his affairs, trusted and well liked, and privy to all his plans except the latest. 4When this man heard that a letter had been delivered, and, thinking as usual that his help or advice was needed, entered the tent, he took the letter, which had been carelessly placed on the cushion above his sleeping master's head, read it through, and then, having discovered the plot, hurried off to the king.
5Nabdalsa, waking a little later, when he did not find the letter and learned the whole affair as it had happened, at first tried to pursue the informer, and when that proved vain, went to Jugurtha to appease him; he told him 5that what he himself had been preparing to do had been forestalled by the treachery of his dependant; 5with tears he implored him, by their friendship and by his own faithful conduct in the past, not to hold him under suspicion of such a crime.