“Bel-Marduk, sovereign of archers, Bel-Marduk, spoiler of cities, Bel-Marduk, lord of all gods, Bel-Marduk, who rulest forever, Thee, thee we praise!” At the last note the Persians closed around them, and each Chaldee as he stood fought to the end, selling his life full dear; but about the king the strife raged fiercest, for Darius had commanded, “Slay not! Take living!” Long after the last of his servants had sped from the fury of man, Belshazzar beat back all who pressed him. The spirit of his fallen god seemed to possess the king; he fought with Bel’s own power. But the sword was beaten from his grasp. Twenty hands stretched out to seize him; he buffeted all away, leaped to one side, and, before any could hinder, drew the dagger from his girdle and sheathed it in his own breast. He staggered. Isaiah upbore him. The king saw in whose arms he was, then his eyes went up to the shivered plaster. The Hebrew felt a spasm of agony pass through Belshazzar’s frame. “Bel is dead!” he cried, his voice never louder. “_Bel is dead! O God of the Jews, Thou hast conquered!_” Then came a dazzling bolt. The wide canopy fell. The rush of rain drowned every torch, and all was blackness. Darius groped his way beside Belshazzar, and spread his mantle across the king’s face to shield it from the rain. “Cruel and ‘Lover of the Lie,’” spoke the prince, “he was yet a brave man and a king; therefore let us do the dead all honour!” Soon the great court was empty, the victors gone, the vanquished cold and still. But till dawn the tempest held its carnival above the towers of the palace. And the winds had one cry, the beat of the rain one burden, to those who were wise to hear, a burden heavy with long years of wrong:— “Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, is fallen! The Lady of Kingdoms is fallen, is fallen, is fallen! She will oppress the weak no more, will slay the innocent no more, will blaspheme God no more! Fallen is Babylon, the Chaldees’ crown and glory.” * * * * * In a greater Book than this is written how Cyrus the Persian made good his vow to Isaiah, and restored the Hebrews to their own land, raising Jerusalem out of her dust and ashes. Elsewhere also is told how Darius and Atossa fared together onward until the son of Hystaspes sat on Cyrus’s own throne and gave law to all the nations. And to Isaiah Jehovah granted that he should become a mighty prophet among his people, and see rapt visions of the “King-who-was-to-be.” But as for Babylon the Great, the traveller who wanders through the desert beside the brimming Euphrates looks upon the mounds of sand and of rubbish, then thinks on the word of the Hebrew poet and prophet of long ago:—