at the hands of the Ethiopians. They will also know how, on his death,
Gaumata, the "pseudo-Smerdis" of the Greeks, was urged by his ambitious
brother, Oropastes, to seize the throne by impersonating the dead
Bartja; how, finally, the pretender was defeated and had to pay for his
attempt with his life; and how Persia rose again to unity and greatness
under the rule of the noble Darius, Bartja's faithful kinsman and
friend.

* * * * *




MARIA EDGEWORTH


Belinda


Maria Edgeworth was born at Black Bourton, Oxfordshire,
England, Jan. 1, 1767, and eleven years later her father
removed to Ireland and settled on his own estate at
Edgeworthstown. "Belinda," published in 1801, is Maria
Edgeworth's one early example of a novel not placed in Irish
surroundings, but dealing with fashionable life. Issued just a
year after the appearance of her first Irish tale, "Castle
Rackrent," it betrays entirely the influence of the novelist's
autocratic and eccentric father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth,
with whom the daughter had been previously collaborating. No
one could be less suited than he to advise about fiction, yet