Thus the camp was pitched for the night. Busy hands brought bales of linen and tent poles from the pack train. The royal tent—a huge ten-sided structure—was soon ready, its dome-shaped roof stretched above, and within was arranged a complete set of portable furniture, including the ivory throne mounted on wheels, which a mule had tugged all the way from Babylon. Scarce smaller was the pavilion set for Darius, who had brought his own Persian servants with him. Around them the tents for men and horses spread like a little village. At night the king set abundant cheer and fare before his guest, but there was no deep drinking, for sober heads were needed in the morning. Darius bade Boges discover how and where the tame lions were kept, and the good fellow reported that they were safely chained and guarded in a distant tent. The prince contrived that no Babylonian should sleep inside his own pavilion. He kept his bow strung and his naked sword beside him, but nothing disturbed till he woke in the morning. * * * * * The foresters had been out very early. They had tracked the auroch and laid a hound on him, but he had distanced them and had hidden in the innermost jungle. Already half of the huntsmen had set forth to make circuit, rout the monster from his lair, and drive him nearer the encampment. After the king had poured libations to Marduk and Istar he mounted horseback and thundered away, the prince and the remaining huntsmen flying behind him. “And where are the tamed lions?” demanded Darius of a Babylonian riding at his side. “They were taken away before dawn to aid in baying the auroch. Doubtless they are on him now. Hark! By Nabu, they have found him!” Through the mazes of the wood reëchoed something deep as thunder, though seemingly very far off. “Ha!” Belshazzar was crying, “the ox is bellowing. They are driving him from his covert.” “Will they force him this way?” was Darius’s question. “So Bel grant! But you will need no bow, son of Hystaspes,” for the Persian was putting on a new string. “The auroch’s hide is arrow-proof. Trust to your short sword.” “I do not love the sword. It is the bow of Iran that has made us Persians a great people. It will not fail!” “I have warned you. You will slay no auroch and win no lion.” The prince answered with silence. Riding side by side with Belshazzar, he had not suffered a word or an act of the king to escape him; but he had not noted how their escort in the rear had gradually dwindled, two falling off here and three there.