mand you, lords and princes
of Babylon, you and your wives and your fair women, that ye also do pour
wine and drink it, doing this homage to Bel our god, and to me,
Belshazzar the king."

And so saying, he turned about to one side and spilled a few drops of
wine upon the marble floor, and set the cup to his lips, facing the
great throng of his guests; and he drank. But from all the banquet went
up a great shout.

"Hail! king, live for ever! Hail! prince of Bel, live for ever! Hail!
king of kings, live for ever!" Long and loud was the cry, ringing and
surging through the pillars and up to the great carved rafters till the
very walls seemed to rock and tremble with the din of the king's praise.

Slowly Belshazzar drained the cup to the dregs, while with half-closed
eyes he listened to the uproar, and perhaps sneered to himself behind
the chalice, as was his wont. Then he set the vessel down and looked up.
But as he looked he staggered and turned pale, and would have fallen; he
grasped the ivory chair behind him and stood trembling in every joint,
and his knees knocking together, while his eyes seemed starting from
his head, and all his face was changed and distorted with dreadful fear.

Upon the red plaster of the wall, over against the candlestick which
shed its strong rays upon the fearful sight, the fingers of a vast hand
moved and traced letters. Only the fingers could be seen, colossal and
of dazzling brightness, and as they slowly did their work, huge
characters of fire blazed out upon the dark red surface, and their
lambent angry flame dazzled those who beheld, and the terror of terrors
fell upon all the great throng; for they stood before Him whose shadow
is immortality and death.

In a silence that could be felt, the dread hand completed its message
and vanished out of sight, but the strange fire burned bright in the
horrid characters of the writing that remained upon the wall.

This was the inscription in Chaldean letters:

SUTMM
IPKNN
NRLAA

Then at last the king found speech and shrieked aloud wildly, and he
commanded that they should bring in all the astrologers, the Chaldeans
and the diviners, for he was in great terror and he dreaded some fearful
and imminent catastrophe.

"Whoever shall read this writing," he cried, his voice changed and
broken, "and declare to me the meaning of it, shall be clothed in
purple, and shall have a chain of gold about his neck and shall rule as
the third i