the progress of the play, a quarrel arose between Cyrus and the
son of Artembaris. The latter would not obey, and Cyrus beat him. He
went home and complained bitterly to his father. The father went to
Astyages to protest against such an indignity offered to his son by a
peasant boy, and demanded that the little tyrant should be punished.
Probably far the larger portion of intelligent readers of history
consider the whole story as a romance; but if we look upon it as in
any respect true, we must conclude that the Median monarchy must have
been, at that time, in a very rude and simple condition indeed, to
allow of the submission of such a question as this to the personal
adjudication of the reigning king.

However this may be, Herodotus states that Artembaris went to the
palace of Astyages, taking his son with him, to offer proofs of the
violence of which the herdsman's son had been guilty, by showing the
contusions and bruises that had been produced by the blows. "Is this
the treatment," he asked, indignantly, of the king, when he had
completed his statement, "that my boy is to receive from the son of
one of your slaves?"

Astyages seemed to be convinced that Artembaris had just cause to
complain, and he sent for Mitridates and his son to come to him in the
city. When they arrived, Cyrus advanced into the presence of the king
with that courageous and manly bearing which romance writers are so
fond of ascribing to boys of noble birth, whatever may have been the
circumstances of their early training. Astyages was much struck with
his appearance and air. He, however, sternly laid to his charge the
accusation which Artembaris had brought against him. Pointing to
Artembaris's son, all bruised and swollen as he was, he asked, "Is
that the way that you, a mere herdsman's boy, dare to treat the son
of one of my nobles?"

The little prince looked up into his stern judge's face with an
undaunted expression of countenance, which, considering the
circumstances of the case, and the smallness of the scale on which
this embryo heroism was represented, was partly ludicrous and partly
sublime.

"My lord," said he, "what I have done I am able to justify. I did
punish this boy, and I had a right to do so. I was king, and he was my
subject, and he would not obey me. If you think that for this I
deserve punishment myself, here I am; I am ready to suffer it."

If Astyages had been struck with the appearance and manner of Cyrus
at the