such an action as it seemed to recommend, he began to
make a circuit in the grove which was around the temple in which the
oracle resided, and to rob and destroy the nests which the birds had
built there, allured, apparently, by the sacred repose and quietude of
the scene. This had the desired effect. A solemn voice was heard from
the interior of the temple, saying, in a warning tone,

"Impious man! how dost thou dare to molest those who have placed
themselves under my protection?"

To this Aristodicus replied by asking the oracle how it was that it
watched over and guarded those who sought its own protection, while it
directed the people of Cyme to abandon and betray suppliants for
theirs. To this the oracle answered,

"I direct them to do it, in order that such impious men may the sooner
bring down upon their heads the judgments of heaven for having dared
to entertain even the thought of delivering up a helpless fugitive."

When this answer was reported to the people of Cyme, they did not dare
to give Pactyas up, nor, on the other hand, did they dare to incur
the enmity of the Persians by retaining and protecting him. They
accordingly sent him secretly away. The emissaries of Mazares,
however, followed him. They kept constantly on his track, demanding
him successively of every city where the hapless fugitive sought
refuge, until, at length, partly by threats and partly by a reward,
they induced a certain city to surrender him. Mazares sent him, a
prisoner, to Cyrus. Soon after this Mazares himself died, and Harpagus
was appointed governor of Lydia in his stead.

In the mean time, Cyrus went on with his conquests in the heart of
Asia, and at length, in the course of a few years, he had completed
his arrangements and preparations for the attack on Babylon. He
advanced at the head of a large force to the vicinity of the city. The
King of Babylon, whose name was Belshazzar, withdrew within the walls,
shut the gates, and felt perfectly secure. A simple wall was in those
days a very effectual protection against any armed force whatever, if
it was only high enough not to be scaled, and thick enough to resist
the blows of a battering ram. The artillery of modern times would have
speedily made a fatal breach in such structures; but there was nothing
but the simple force of man, applied through brazen-headed beams of
wood, in those days, and Belshazzar knew well that his walls would bid
all such modes of demolition a comp