ght agitated with terror and tumult
the palace, the city, and the camp of Dastagerd: the satraps hesitated
whether they had most to fear from their sovereign or the enemy; and
the females of the harem were astonished and pleased by the sight of
mankind, till the jealous husband of three thousand wives again confined
them to a more distant castle. At his command, the army of Dastagerd
retreated to a new camp: the front was covered by the Arba, and a line
of two hundred elephants; the troops of the more distant provinces
successively arrived, and the vilest domestics of the king and satraps
were enrolled for the last defence of the throne. It was still in the
power of Chosroes to obtain a reasonable peace; and he was repeatedly
pressed by the messengers of Heraclius to spare the blood of his
subjects, and to relieve a humane conqueror from the painful duty of
carrying fire and sword through the fairest countries of Asia. But the
pride of the Persian had not yet sunk to the level of his fortune; he
derived a momentary confidence from the retreat of the emperor; he
wept with impotent rage over the ruins of his Assyrian palaces, and
disregarded too long the rising murmurs of the nation, who complained
that their lives and fortunes were sacrificed to the obstinacy of an old
man. That unhappy old man was himself tortured with the sharpest pains
both of mind and body; and, in the consciousness of his approaching end,
he resolved to fix the tiara on the head of Merdaza, the most favored
of his sons. But the will of Chosroes was no longer revered, and
Siroes, [1051] who gloried in the rank and merit of his mother Sira, had
conspired with the malecontents to assert and anticipate the rights
of primogeniture. [106] Twenty-two satraps (they styled themselves
patriots) were tempted by the wealth and honors of a new reign: to
the soldiers, the heir of Chosroes promised an increase of pay; to
the Christians, the free exercise of their religion; to the captives,
liberty and rewards; and to the nation, instant peace and the reduction
of taxes. It was determined by the conspirators, that Siroes, with the
ensigns of royalty, should appear in the camp; and if the enterprise
should fail, his escape was contrived to the Imperial court. But the new
monarch was saluted with unanimous acclamations; the flight of Chosroes
(yet where could he have fled?) was rudely arrested, eighteen sons were
massacred [1061] before his face, and he was thrown into