shall be dried up. In her heat I will make their feasts, and I
will make them drunken, that they may repose and sleep a perpetual sleep,
and not wake, saith the Lord. Arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield!
Prepare slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers,
that they do not rise and possess the land; for I will rise up against
thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name and
remnant, and son and nephew, saith the Lord.'

"These, O king, are some of the predictions of Jehovah against Babylon,
by the mouths of his holy prophets. And has not my lord the king been an
eye witness to their fulfillment!"

"They have all come to pass to the letter, O Daniel! Surely the God of
Israel is the God of gods! Why should I any longer doubt? Thus it appears
that Cyrus the Persian has been under the directions of the God of
Israel, to bring about these wonderful events!"

"In this thou sayest truly, O king. And strange as it may sound in thine
ears, be assured that thy name was known in Israel for over one hundred
and fifty years before thy birth."

Here the Persian gazed on the Hebrew for awhile in silent wonderment; and
it was evident from his countenance, that he had some doubt in regard to
the truth of the sentence.

"Did the king rightly understand thy meaning? Sayest thou that my name
was known in Israel for one hundred and fifty years previous to my
birth?"

"The king rightly understandeth his servant. Thy name was carefully
written in a book by one of our prophets two hundred and twenty years
ago. Happily, I have now in my possession a copy taken from the original,
written by one of our scribes, and bearing date which maketh it over one
hundred and seventy years old. If the king desireth, thy servant will
read."

"Read, Daniel," said the king, with much feeling.

Daniel from the same scroll from which he had read before, which was the
Prophecies of Isaiah, read:

"'Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have
holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings
to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not he shut,
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break
in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I
will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret
places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord which call thee by thy
name, am the God