ever softer. He thought he was
sinking into a kind of euthanasy, that his life was drifting out amid
delightful dreams. But not cold Thanatos, but health-bearing Hypnos was
the god who visited him now. When next he woke, it was with a clearer
vision, a sounder mind.

* * * * * * *

Sardis the Golden, once capital of the Lydian kings and now of the Persian
satraps, had recovered from the devastation by the Ionians in their
ill-starred revolt seventeen years preceding. The city spread in the
fertile Sardiene, one of the garden plains of Asia Minor. To the south the
cloud-crowned heights of Tmolus ever were visible. To the north flowed the
noble stream of Hebrus, whilst high above the wealthy town, the busy
agora, the giant temple of Lydian Cybele, rose the citadel of Meles, the
palace fortress of the kings and the satraps. A frowning castle it was
without, within not the golden-tiled palaces of Ecbatana and Susa boasted
greater magnificence and luxury than this one-time dwelling of Croesus. The
ceilings of the wide banqueting halls rose on pillars of emerald Egyptian
malachite. The walls were cased with onyx. Winged bulls that might have
graced Nineveh guarded the portals. The lions upbearing the throne in the
hall of audience were of gold. The mirrors in the "House of the Women"
were not steel but silver. The gorgeous carpets were sprinkled with rose
water. An army of dark Syrian eunuchs and yellow-faced Tartar girls ran at
the beck of the palace guests. Only the stealthy entrance of Sickness and
Death told the dwellers here they were not yet gods.

Artaphernes, satrap of Lydia, had his divan, his viziers, and his
audiences,--a court worthy of a king,--but the real lord of Western Asia was
the prince who was nominally his guest. Mardonius had his own retinue and
wing of the palace. On him fell the enormous task of organizing the masses
of troops already pouring into Sardis, and he discharged his duty
unwearyingly. The completion of the bridges of boats across the
Hellespont, the assembling of the fleet, the collecting of provisions,
fell to his province. Daily a courier pricked into Sardis with despatches
from the Great King to his trusted general. Mardonius left the great
levees and public spectacles to Artaphernes, but his hand was everywhere.
His decisions were prompt. He was in constant communication with the
Medizing party in Hellas. He had no time for the long dicing and drinking
bo