The questioning over, Cyrus turned to the judges, and said to them, ‘Thus has Orontes spoken, thus has he done. Speak then, and you first, Clearchus, say what he deserves.’ ‘My advice,’ answered Clearchus, ‘is to put this man out of the way, so that we need not have to watch him.’ The Persians, even the relations of Orontes, concurred in the opinion of Clearchus, and each in turn seized the prisoner by the girdle, which was the Persian manner of pronouncing the sentence of death. Then Orontes was led away through a great crowd of Hellenes and Barbarians who had assembled outside the tent of Cyrus, and many of the Persians of lower rank threw themselves on the ground before him, as they had always been accustomed, although the great lord was now a criminal condemned to death. After this Orontes was never seen again, and no one ever knew by what death he died, or where he was buried. It is probable that according to a practice common in Persia, he was buried alive beneath the tent to which he had been taken. XIV THE KING APPROACHES After three more days of marching, there arrived at the camp of Cyrus some deserters, who informed him that the King’s army was close at hand. He could hardly have been much surprised at the news that Artaxerxes was approaching; the only wonder was that he had tarried so long, for he had heard from Tissaphernes of the revolt of Cyrus in little more than a month from the time that the expedition had set out from Sardis. The King had certainly expected that his brother would find some difficulty in getting through Cilicia, and that Abrocamas, with his 300,000 men, would do something more to check his progress than merely burning the boats on the Euphrates. But it was now two months since the flight of Abrocamas, and yet the King had made no effort to meet the usurper, but had allowed him to penetrate unhindered into the very heart of the empire. Cyrus had now reached the rich province of Babylonia, where the fruitful soil brought forth food in abundance, being watered by the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, which in this part of the country flow at a distance of only a few miles apart. The Hellenes thought scorn of a King who could be so indolent and so irresolute, and they said, mockingly, one to another, ‘This is a King who can neither ride, nor drink, nor hunt, nor fight.’ But Cyrus took a different view of his brother’s character, for once when Clearchus asked him, ‘Do you think, Cyrus, that your brother will fight at all?’ he answered, ‘By Zeus, he will. If he be the son of Darius and Parysatis, and my brother, I shall not get the crown from him without a struggle.’ [Illustration: THE GREAT KING HUNTING. Sculpture found at Persepolis. See p. 3.] When the news of the King’s approach reached Cyrus, it was already past midnight, but nevertheless he at once held a review of his whole force, for he thought that a battle might now take place at any time.