Bands of drunken men paraded the streets, crying: "Bartja, the good son
of Cyrus, is to be executed!" The women heard these words in their quiet
apartments, eluded their keepers, forgot their veils, and rushing forth
into the streets, followed the excited and indignant men with cries and
yells. Their pleasure in the thought of seeing a more fortunate sister
humbled, vanished at the painful news that their beloved prince was
condemned to death. Men, women and children raged, stormed and cursed,
exciting one another to louder and louder bursts of indignation. The
workshops were emptied, the merchants closed their warehouses, and the
school-boys and servants, who had a week's holiday on occasion of the
king's birthday, used their freedom to scream louder than any one else,
and often to groan and yell without in the least knowing why.

At last the tumult was so great that the whip-bearers were insufficient
to cope with it, and a detachment of the body-guard was sent to patrol
the streets. At the sight of their shining armor and long lances, the
crowd retired into the side streets, only, however, to reassemble in
fresh numbers when the troops were out of sight.

At the gate, called the Bel gate, which led to the great western high-
road, the throng was thicker than at any other point, for it was said
that through this gate, the one by which she had entered Babylon, the
Egyptian Princess was to be led out of the city in shame and disgrace.
For this reason a larger number of whipbearers were stationed here, in
order to make way for travellers entering the city. Very few people
indeed left the city at all on this day, for curiosity was stronger than
either business or pleasure; those, on the other hand, who arrived from
the country, took up their stations near the gate on hearing what had
drawn the crowd thither.