and conducted by her husband to her
new home. About a year afterward her father had another dream. He
dreamed that a vine proceeded from his daughter, and, growing rapidly
and luxuriantly while he was regarding it, extended itself over the
whole land. Now the vine being a symbol of beneficence and plenty,
Astyages might have considered this vision as an omen of good; still,
as it was good which was to be derived in some way from his daughter,
it naturally awakened his fears anew that he was doomed to find a
rival and competitor for the possession of his kingdom in Mandane's
son and heir. He called together his soothsayers, related his dream to
them, and asked for their interpretation. They decided that it meant
that Mandane would have a son who would one day become a king.

Astyages was now seriously alarmed, and he sent for Mandane to come
home, ostensibly because he wished her to pay a visit to her father
and to her native land, but really for the purpose of having her in
his power, that he might destroy her child so soon as one should be
born.

Mandane came to Media, and was established by her father in a
residence near his palace, and such officers and domestics were put
in charge of her household as Astyages could rely upon to do whatever
he should command. Things being thus arranged, a few months passed
away, and then Mandane's child was born.

Immediately on hearing of the event, Astyages sent for a certain
officer of his court, an unscrupulous and hardened man, who possessed,
as he supposed, enough of depraved and reckless resolution for the
commission of any crime, and addressed him as follows:

"I have sent for you, Harpagus, to commit to your charge a business of
very great importance. I confide fully in your principles of obedience
and fidelity, and depend upon your doing, yourself, with your own
hands, the work that I require. If you fail to do it, or if you
attempt to evade it by putting it off upon others, you will suffer
severely. I wish you to take Mandane's child to your own house and
put him to death. You may accomplish the object in any mode you
please, and you may arrange the circumstances of the burial of the
body, or the disposal of it in any other way, as you think best; the
essential thing is, that you see to it, yourself, that the child is
killed."

Harpagus replied that whatever the king might command it was his duty
to do, and that, as his master had never hitherto had occasion to
cen