ow your first design."
Having said this, the vision disappeared. The next day he again
assembled his council, and without speaking of his dream, he testified
his regret for what he said in his rage the preceding day to his uncle
Artabanes, and declared that he had renounced his design of making war
upon the Greeks. Those who composed the council, transported with joy,
prostrated themselves before him, and congratulated him upon it.

The following night he had a second time the same vision, and the same
phantom said to him, "Son of Darius, thou hast then abandoned thy
design of declaring war against the Greeks, regardless of what I said
to thee. Know that if thou dost not instantly undertake this
expedition, thou wilt soon be reduced to a situation as low as that in
which thou now findest thyself elevated." The king directly rose from
his bed, and sent in all haste for Artabanes, to whom he related the
two dreams which he had had two nights consecutively. He added, "I
pray you to put on my royal ornaments, sit down on my throne, and then
lie down in my bed. If the phantom which appeared to me appears to you
also, I shall believe that the thing is ordained by the decrees of the
gods, and I shall yield to their commands."

Artabanes would in vain have excused himself from putting on the royal
ornaments, sitting on the king's throne, and lying down in his bed,
alleging that all those things would be useless if the gods had
resolved to let him know their will; that it would even be more likely
to exasperate the gods, as if he desired to deceive them by external
appearances. As for the rest, dreams in themselves deserve no
attention, and usually they are only the consequences and
representations of what is most strongly in the mind when awake.

Xerxes did not yield to his arguments, and Artabanes did what the king
desired, persuaded that if the same thing should occur more than once,
it would be a proof of the will of the gods, of the reality of the
vision, and the truth of the dream. He then laid down in the king's
bed, and the same phantom appeared to him, and said, "It is you, then,
who prevent Xerxes from executing his resolve and accomplishing what
is decreed by fate. I have already declared to the king what he has to
fear if he disobeys my orders." At the same time it appeared to
Artabanes that the spectre would burn his eyes with a red-hot iron. He
directly sprang from the couch, and related to Xerxes what had
appea