ythians, thinking that they now had
their enemies at their mercy, departed in search of their foes. That
night the Persian army, in a state of the greatest distress and
privation, reached the Danube, the Scythians having missed them and
failed to check their march. To the horror of Darius and his starving
and terror-stricken men, the bridge, in the darkness, appeared to be
gone. An Egyptian herald, with a voice like a trumpet, was ordered to
call for Histiaeus, the Milesian. He did so, an answer came through the
darkness, and the hopes of the fleeing king were restored. The bridge
was speedily made complete again, and the Persian army hastily crossed,
reaching the opposite bank before the Scythians, who had lost their
track, reappeared in pursuit.

Thus ended in disaster the first Persian invasion of Europe. It was to
be followed by others in later years, equally disastrous to the
invaders. As for the despots of Ionia, who had through selfishness lost
the chance of freeing their native land, they were to live to see,
before many years, Ionia desolated by the Persian tyrant whom they had
saved from irretrievable ruin. We shall tell how this came about, as a
sequel to the story of the invasion of Scythia.

Histiaeus, despot of Miletus, whose advice had saved the bridge for
Darius, was richly rewarded for his service, and attended Darius on his
return to Susa, the Persian capital, leaving his son-in-law Aristagoras
in command at Miletus. Some ten years afterwards this regent of Miletus
made an attempt, with Persian aid, to capture the island of Naxos. The
effort failed, and Aristagoras, against whom the Persians were incensed
by their defeat and their losses, was threatened with ruin. He began to
think of a revolt from Persian rule.

While thus mentally engaged, he received a strangely-sent message from
Histiaeus, who was still detained at Susa, and who eagerly desired to get
away from dancing attendance at court and return to his kingdom.
Histiaeus advised his regent to revolt. But as this message was far too
dangerous to be sent by any ordinary channels, he adopted an
extraordinary method to insure its secrecy. Selecting one of his most
trusty slaves, Histiaeus had his head shaved, and then pricked or
tattooed upon the bare scalp the message he wished to send. Keeping the
slave in seclusion until his hair had grown again, he sent him to
Miletus, where he was instructed simply to tell Aristagoras to shave and
examine h