s feast we
have already spoken. Thus Providence furnished him with as fit an
opportunity as he could desire. He therefore posted a part of his troops
on that side where the river entered the city, and another part on that
side where it went out, and commanded them to enter the city that very
night by marching along the channel of the river as soon as ever they
found it fordable. Having given all necessary orders, he exhorted his
officers to follow him--that he was under the direction of the gods. In
the evening he gave orders to open the great receptacles, or ditches, on
both sides of the town, above and below, that the waters of the rivers
might run into them. By this means the Euphrates was quickly emptied and
its channel became dry. Then the two bodies of troops, according to their
orders, went into the channels, the one commanded by Gobryas and the
other by Gadates, and advanced toward each other without meeting any
impediment.

Thus did these two bodies of troops penetrate into the very heart of the
city without opposition. According to agreement, they met together at the
royal palace, surprised the guard, and slew them. The company, hearing
the tumult without, opened the door. The Persian soldiers rushed in. They
were met by the king with his sword in hand. He was slain, and hundreds
of his drunken associates shared the same fate. Thus terminated the great
banquet of Belshazzar, where the God of heaven was wickedly blasphemed;
and thus terminated the Babylonian empire, after a duration of two
hundred and ten years from the first of Nabonassar's reign, who was the
founder thereof.

CHAPTER XXIII.

IMMEDIATELY after the taking of Babylon, Cyrus ordered a day of public
thanksgiving to the gods, for their wonderful favors and their kind
interposition; and then, having assembled his principal officers, he
publicly applauded their courage and prudence, their zeal and attachment
to his person, and distributed rewards to his whole army. He also
reviewed his forces, which were in a spirited condition. He found they
consisted of 120,000 horse, 2,000 chariots armed with scythes, and
600,000 foot.

When Cyrus judged he had sufficiently regulated his affairs at Babylon,
he thought proper to take a journey into Persia. On his way thither he
went through Media, to visit Darius, to whom he carried many presents,
telling him at the same time that he would find a noble palace at Babylon
ready prepared for him whenever he s