ords and not suspect that Darius sent me hither to win you
over to his side, I will commit a deed, which must destroy every doubt
and prove that the truth and glory of the Achaemenidae are clearer to
me, than life itself. Blessed be ye if ye follow my counsels, but curses
rest upon you, if ye neglect to reconquer the throne from the Magi and
revenge yourselves upon them.--Behold, I die a true and honorable man!"

With these words he ascended the highest pinnacle of the tower and cast
himself down head foremost, thus expiating the one crime of his life by
an honorable death.

The dead silence with which the people in the court below had listened
to him, was now broken by shrieks of rage and cries for vengeance. They
burst open the gates of the palace and were pressing in with cries of
"Death to the Magi," when the seven princes of the Persians appeared in
front of the raging crowd to resist their entrance.

At sight of the Achaemenidae the citizens broke into shouts of joy, and
cried more impetuously than ever, "Down with the Magi! Victory to King
Darius!"

The son of Hystaspes was then carried by the crowd to a rising ground,
from which he told the people that the Magi had been slain by the
Achaemenidae, as liars and usurpers. Fresh cries of joy arose in answer
to these words, and when at last the bleeding heads of Oropastes and
Gaumata were shown to the crowd, they rushed with horrid yells through
the streets of the city, murdering every Magian they could lay hold of.
The darkness of night alone was able to stop this awful massacre.

Four days later, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, was chosen as king by the
heads of the Achaemenidae, in consideration of his high birth and noble
character, and received by the Persian nation with enthusiasm. Darius
had killed Gaumata with his own hand, and the highpriest had received
his death-thrust from the hand of Megabyzus, the father of Zopyrus.
While Prexaspes was haranguing the people, the seven conspiring Persian
princes, Otanes, Intaphernes, Gobryas, Megabyzus, Aspatines, Hydarnes
and Darius, (as representative of his aged father Hystaspes), had
entered the palace by a carelessly-guarded gate, sought out the part
of the building occupied by the Magi, and then, assisted by their own
knowledge of the palace, and the fact that most of the guards had been
sent to keep watch over the crowd assembled to hear Prexaspes easily
penetrated to the apartments in which at that moment they