urage and energy
enough, it seems," said he, "to make war upon an innocent and
defenseless brother, and to keep him for years in chains and in a
dungeon, but when an actual enemy appears, though he comes to despoil
you of all your possessions, and to send you into hopeless exile, and
though, if you had the ordinary courage and spirit of a man, you could
easily drive him away, yet you dare not face him. If you are too
cowardly and mean to do your duty yourself, give me your soldiers, and
I will do it for you. I will drive these Persians back into the sea
with as much pleasure as it would give me to drive you there!"

Such a nature as that of Maeandrius can not be stung into a proper
sense of duty by reproaches like these. There seem to have been in his
heart no moral sensibilities of any kind, and there could be, of
course, no compunctions for the past, and no awakening of new and
better desires for the future. All the effect which was produced upon
his mind by these bitter denunciations was to convince him that to
comply with his brother's request would be to do the best thing now in
his power for widening, and extending, and making sure the misery and
mischief which were impending. He placed his troops, therefore, under
his brother's orders; and while the infuriated madman sallied forth at
the head of them to attack the astonished Persians on one side of the
citadel, Maeandrius made his escape through the under-ground passage on
the other. The Persians were so exasperated at what appeared to them
the basest treachery, that, as soon as they could recover their arms
and get once more into battle array, they commenced a universal
slaughter of the Samians. They spared neither age, sex, nor condition;
and when, at last, their vengeance was satisfied, and they put the
island into Syloson's hands, and withdrew, he found himself in
possession of an almost absolute solitude.

[Illustration: THE BABYLONIANS DERIDING DARIUS.]

It was while Otanes was absent on this enterprise, having with him a
large part of the disposable forces of the king, that the Babylonians
revolted. Darius was greatly incensed at hearing the tidings.
Sovereigns are always greatly incensed at a revolt on the part of
their subjects. The circumstances of the case, whatever they may be,
always seem to them to constitute a peculiar aggravation of the
offense. Darius was indignant that the Babylonians had attempted to
take advantage of his weakness by rebelli