prison, near the guard-house of the Immortals. You must manage that
these flowers reach them, with a warm greeting from me, but mind, the
message must be given with the flowers."

"But the guards will not allow me to see the prisoners."

"Take these rings, and slip them into their hands."

"I will do my best."

"I knew you loved me, my good Sabaces. Now make haste, and come back
soon."

The old man went off as fast as he could. Atossa looked thoughtfully
after him, murmuring to herself: "Now they will both know, that I loved
them to the last. The rose means, 'I love you,' and the evergreen
cypress, 'true and steadfast.'" The old man came back in an hour;
bringing her Bartja's favorite ring, and from Darius an Indian
handkerchief dipped in blood.

Atossa ran to meet him; her eyes filled with tears as she took the
tokens, and seating herself under a spreading plane-tree, she pressed
them by turns to her lips, murmuring: "Bartja's ring means that he thinks
of me; the blood-stained handkerchief that Darius is ready to shed his
heart's blood for me."

Atossa smiled as she said this, and her tears, when she thought of her
friends and their sad fate, were quieter, if not less bitter, than
before.