Thus, in Persia, we read that Ahasuerus loved Esther[52], who had found grace in his sight more than the other virgins, and he had placed a golden crown upon her head. And Josephus[53] informs us, that, when Esther[54] was brought before the king, he was exceedingly delighted with her, and made her his lawful wife, and when she came into the palace he put a crown upon her head: whether placing the crown upon the queen’s head had any civil effect as to regency in Persia as it had in Abyssinia, is what history does not inform us. I have already observed, that there is an officer called Serach Massery, who watches before the king’s gate all night, and at the dawn of day cracks a whip to chace the wild beasts out of the town. This, too, is the signal for the king to rise, and sit down in his judgment-seat. The same custom was observed in Persia. Early in the morning an officer entered the king’s chamber, and said to him “Arise, O king! and take charge of those matters which Oromasdes has appointed you to the care of.” The king of Abyssinia never is seen to walk, nor to set his foot upon the ground, out of his palace; and when he would dismount from the horse or mule on which he rides, he has a servant with a stool, who places it properly for him for that purpose. He rides into the anti-chamber to the foot of his throne, or to the stool placed in the alcove of his tent. We are told by Athenaeus[55], such was the practice in Persia, whose king never set his foot upon the ground out of his palace. The king of Abyssinia very often judges capital crimes himself. It is reckoned a favourable judicature, such as, Claudian says, that of a king in person should be, “_Piger ad pœnas, ad præmia velox_.” No man is condemned by the king in person to die for the first fault, unless the crime be of a horrid nature, such as parricide or sacrilege. And, in general, the life and merits of the prisoner are weighed against his immediate guilt; so that if his first behaviour has had more merit towards the state than his present delinquency is thought to have injured it, the one is placed fairly against the other, and the accused is generally absolved when the sovereign judges alone. Herodotus[56] praises this as a maxim of the kings of Persia in capital judgments, almost in the very words that I have just now used; and he gives an instance of it:--Darius had condemned Sandoces, one of the king’s judges, to be crucified for corruption, that is, for having given false judgment for a bribe. The man was already hung up on the cross, when the king, considering with himself how many good services he had done, previous to this, the only offence which he had committed, ordered him to be pardoned.