"Folly! I don't believe in such things."

"But don't you remember the legend of the Div, who took the beautiful
form of a minstrel and appeared before king Kawus?"

"Of course," cried Araspes. "Cyrus had this legend so often recited at
the banquets, that I know it by heart.

"Kai Kawus hearkened to the words of the disguised Div and went to
Masenderan, and was beaten there by the Divs and deprived of his
eyesight."

"But," broke in Darius, "Rustem, the great hero, came and conquered
Erscheng and the other bad spirits, freed the captives and restored sight
to the blind, by dropping the blood of the slaughtered Divs into their
eyes. And so it will be with us, my friends! We shall be set free, and
the eyes of Cambyses and of our blind and infatuated fathers will be
opened to see our innocence. Listen, Bischen; if we really should be
executed, go to the Magi, the Chaldwans, and Nebenchari the Egyptian, and
tell them they had better not study the stars any longer, for that those
very stars had proved themselves liars and deceivers to Darius."

"Yes," interrupted Araspes, "I always said that dreams were the only real
prophecies. Before Abradatas fell in the battle of Sardis, the peerless
Panthea dreamt that she saw him pierced by a Lydian arrow."

"You cruel fellow!" exclaimed Zopyrus. "Why do you remind us, that it
is much more glorious to die in battle than to have our necks wrung off"

"Quite right," answered the elder man; "I confess that I have seen many a