n galloped into view. There was no
mistaking what it was. A troop of horse were coming--perhaps the king
himself. Instinctively she turned and looked for Zoroaster, and started,
as she saw him standing at a little distance from her, with folded arms,
his eyes bent on the horizon. She moved towards him in sudden
excitement.

"What is it?" she asked in low tones.

"It is the Great King--may he live for ever!" answered Zoroaster. "None
but he would ride so fast along the royal road."

For a moment they stood side by side, watching the dust cloud; and as
they stood, Nehushta's hand stole out from her cloak and touched the
warrior's arm, softly, with a trembling of the fingers, as though she
timidly sought something she would not ask for. Zoroaster turned his
head and saw that her eyes were moistened with tears; he understood, but
he would not take her hand, for there were many slaves near, besides
Nehushta's kinsfolk, and he would not have had them see; but he looked
on her tenderly, and on a sudden, his eyes grew less sad, and the light
returned in them.

"My beloved!" he said softly.

"I was wrong, Zoroaster--forgive me," she murmured. She suffered him to
lead her to her tent, which was already pitched; and he left her there,
sitting at the door and watching his movements, while he called together
his men and drew them up in a compact rank by the roadside, to be ready
to salute the king.

Nearer and nearer came the cloud; and the red glow turned to purple and
the sun went out of sight; and still it came nearer, that whirling
cloud-canopy of fine powdered dust, rising to right and left of the road
in vast round puffs, and hanging overhead like the smoke from some great
moving fire. Then, from beneath it, there seemed to come a distant roar
like thunder, rising and falling on the silent air, but rising ever
louder; and a dark gleam of polished bronze, with something more purple
than the purple sunset, took shape slowly; then with the low roar of
sound, came now and then, and then more often, the clank of harness and
arms; till at last, the whole stamping, rushing, clanging crowd of
galloping horsemen seemed to emerge suddenly from the dust in a
thundering charge, the very earth shaking beneath their weight, and the
whole air vibrating to the tremendous shock of pounding hoofs and the
din of clashing brass.

A few lengths before the serried ranks rode one man alone,--a square
figure, wrapped in a cloak of deeper and