ures of
Prexaspes, of which they had just been informed. They heard the tumult
and the outcries of the eunuchs at the doors, and seized their arms,
the one a bow and the other a spear. The conspirators rushed in. The
bow was useless in the close combat which ensued, and the magian who
had taken it turned and fled. The other defended himself with his
spear for a moment, and wounded severely two of his assailants. The
wounded conspirators fell. Three others of the number continued the
unequal combat with the armed magian, while Darius and Gobryas rushed
in pursuit of the other.

The flying magian ran from one apartment to another until he reached a
dark room, into which the blind instinct of fear prompted him to rush,
in the vain hope of concealment. Gobryas was foremost; he seized the
wretched fugitive by the waist, and struggled to hold him, while the
magian struggled to get free. Gobryas called upon Darius, who was
close behind him, to strike. Darius, brandishing his sword, looked
earnestly into the obscure retreat, that he might see where to strike.

"Strike!" exclaimed Gobryas. "Why do you not strike?"

"I can not see," said Darius, "and I am afraid of wounding you."

"No matter," said Gobryas, struggling desperately all the time with
his frantic victim. "Strike quick, if you kill us both."

Darius struck. Gobryas loosened his hold, and the magian fell upon the
floor, and there, stabbed again through the heart by Darius's sword,
almost immediately ceased to breathe.

They dragged the body to the light, and cut off the head. They did the
same with the other magian, whom they found that their confederates
had killed when they returned to the apartments where they had left
them contending. The whole body of the conspirators then, except the
two who were wounded, exulting in their success, and wild with the
excitement which such deeds always awaken, went forth into the streets
of the city, bearing the heads upon pikes as the trophies of their
victory. They summoned the Persian soldiers to arms, and announced
every where that they had ascertained that the king was a priest and
an impostor, and not their legitimate sovereign, and that they had
consequently killed him. They called upon the people to kill the
magians wherever they could find them, as if the whole class were
implicated in the guilt of the usurping brothers.

The populace in all countries are easily excited by such denunciations
and appeals as these. T