nown to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with
scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shall be the third
ruler in the kingdom."

Then Daniel answered and said before the king:

"Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another. Yet I will
read the writing to the king, and make known unto him the interpretation.

"O thou king! the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom, and
majesty, and glory, and honor. All people, nations and languages trembled
and feared before him. Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept
alive; whom he would he set up, and whom he would he put down. But when
his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed
from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him; and he was
driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and
his dwelling was with the wild asses. They fed him with grass like oxen,
and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most
High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it
whomsoever he will. And thou, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart,
though thou knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord
of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee,
and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine in
them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron,
wood and stone, which see not, nor bear, nor know; and the God in whose
hand thy breath is, thou hast not glorified.

"This is the interpretation of the thing. Mene--God hath numbered thy
kingdom and finished it; Tekel--thou art weighed in the balances and found
wanting; Peres--thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and
Persians."

Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put
a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him,
that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

. . . . . . .

As soon as Cyrus saw that the ditches, which they had long worked upon,
were finished, he began to plan for the execution of his vast design,
which as yet he had communicated to no one. He was informed that, in the
city, on a certain day, a great festival was to be celebrated, and that
the Babylonians, on occasions of that solemnity, were accustomed to pass
the whole night in drunkenness and debauchery. Of this impiou