e met the chiefs of
the seven tribes and seeing that they avoided him, called out to
them: "I am worthy of your contempt, but I will try to deserve your
forgiveness."

Seeing Darius look back, he hastened towards him, grasped his hand and
said: "I have loved you like a son; take care of my children when I am
no more, and use your pinions, winged Darius." Then, with the same proud
demeanor he ascended the tower.

Many thousands of the citizens of Nisaea were within reach of his voice,
as he cried aloud: "Ye all know that the kings who have, up to the
present time, loaded you with honor and glory, belonged to the house of
the Achaemenidae. Cyrus governed you like a real father, Cambyses was a
stern master, and Bartja would have guided you like a bridegroom, if
I, with this right hand which I now show you, had not slain him on the
shores of the Red Sea. By Mithras, it was with a bleeding heart that
I committed this wicked deed, but I did it as a faithful servant in
obedience to the king's command. Nevertheless, it has haunted me by day
and night; for four long years I have been pursued and tormented by the
spirits of darkness, who scare sleep from the murderer's couch. I have
now resolved to end this painful, despairing existence by a worthy deed,
and though even this may procure me no mercy at the bridge of Chinvat,
in the mouths of men, at least, I shall have redeemed my honorable name
from the stain with which I defiled it. Know then, that the man who
gives himself out for the son of Cyrus, sent me hither; he promised me
rich rewards if I would deceive you by declaring him to be Bartja, the
son of the Achaemenidae. But I scorn his promises and swear by Mithras
and the Feruers of the kings, the most solemn oaths I am acquainted
with, that the man who is now ruling you is none other than the Magian
Gaumata, he who was deprived of his ears, the brother of the king's
vicegerent and high-priest, Oropastes, whom ye all know. If it be your
will to forget all the glory ye owe to the Achaemenidae, if to this
ingratitude ye choose to add your own degradation, then acknowledge
these creatures and call them your kings; but if ye despise a lie and
are ashamed to obey worthless impostors, drive the Magi from the throne
before Mithras has left the heavens, and proclaim the noblest of the
Achaemenidae, Darius, the exalted son of Hystaspes, who promises to
become a second Cyrus, as your king. And now, in order that ye may
believe my w