gus
gave the astonished herdsman his charge. He, afraid, as Harpagus had
been in the presence of Astyages, to evince any hesitation in respect
to obeying the orders of his superior, whatever they might be, took up
the child and bore it away.

He carried it to his hut. It so happened that his wife, whose name was
Spaco, had at that very time a new-born child, but it was dead. Her
dead son had, in fact, been born during the absence of Mitridates. He
had been extremely unwilling to leave his home at such a time, but the
summons of Harpagus must, he knew, be obeyed. His wife, too, not
knowing what could have occasioned so sudden and urgent a call, had to
bear, all the day, a burden of anxiety and solicitude in respect to
her husband, in addition to her disappointment and grief at the loss
of her child. Her anxiety and grief were changed for a little time
into astonishment and curiosity at seeing the beautiful babe, so
magnificently dressed, which her husband brought to her, and at
hearing his extraordinary story.

He said that when he first entered the house of Harpagus and saw the
child lying there, and heard the directions which Harpagus gave him to
carry it into the mountains and leave it to die, he supposed that the
babe belonged to some of the domestics of the household, and that
Harpagus wished to have it destroyed in order to be relieved of a
burden. The richness, however, of the infant's dress, and the deep
anxiety and sorrow which was indicated by the countenances and by the
conversation of Harpagus and his wife, and which seemed altogether too
earnest to be excited by the concern which they would probably feel
for any servant's offspring, appeared at the time, he said,
inconsistent with that supposition, and perplexed and bewildered him.
He said, moreover, that in the end, Harpagus had sent a man with him a
part of the way when he left the house, and that this man had given
him a full explanation of the case. The child was the son of Mandane,
the daughter of the king, and he was to be destroyed by the orders of
Astyages himself, for fear that at some future period he might attempt
to usurp the throne.

They who know any thing of the feelings of a mother under the
circumstances in which Spaco was placed, can imagine with what
emotions she received the little sufferer, now nearly exhausted by
abstinence, fatigue, and fear, from her husband's hands, and the
heartfelt pleasure with which she drew him to her bosom,