of excitement and triumph.

The battle in which these events occurred was one of the greatest and
most important which Cyrus fought. He gained the victory. His enemies
were every where routed and driven from the field. When the contest
was at length decided, the army desisted from the slaughter and
encamped for the night. On the following day, the generals assembled
at the tent of Cyrus to discuss the arrangements which were to be made
in respect to the disposition of the captives and of the spoil, and to
the future movements of the army. Abradates was not there. For a time,
Cyrus, in the excitement and confusion of the scene did not observe
his absence. At length he inquired for him. A soldier present told
him that he had been killed from his chariot in the midst of the
Egyptians, and that his wife was at that moment attending to the
interment of the body, on the banks of a river which flowed near the
field of battle. Cyrus, on hearing this, uttered a loud exclamation of
astonishment and sorrow. He dropped the business in which he had been
engaged with his council, mounted his horse, commanded attendants to
follow him with every thing that could be necessary on such an
occasion, and then, asking those who knew to lead the way, he drove
off to find Panthea.

When he arrived at the spot, the dead body of Abradates was lying upon
the ground, while Panthea sat by its side, holding the head in her
lap, overwhelmed herself with unutterable sorrow. Cyrus leaped from
his horse, knelt down by the side of the corpse, saying, at the same
time, "Alas! thou brave and faithful soul, and art thou gone?"

At the same time, he took hold of the hand of Abradates; but, as he
attempted to raise it, the arm came away from the body. It had been
cut off by an Egyptian sword. Cyrus was himself shocked at the
spectacle, and Panthea's grief broke forth anew. She cried out with
bitter anguish, replaced the arm in the position in which she had
arranged it before, and told Cyrus that the rest of the body was in
the same condition. Whenever she attempted to speak, her sobs and
tears almost prevented her utterance. She bitterly reproached herself
for having been, perhaps, the cause of her husband's death, by urging
him, as she had done, to fidelity and courage when he went into
battle. "And now," she said, "he is dead, while I, who urged him
forward into the danger, am still alive."

Cyrus said what he could to console Panthea's grief; but he f