dark woman, who was
preferred before her by the man she secretly loved, and whom the king
had brutally declared to be the most beautiful woman in the world. She
longed for her destruction as she had never longed for anything in her
life. Her whole soul rose in bitter resentment; not only did Zoroaster
love this black-eyed, dark-browed child of captivity, but the king, who
had always maintained that Atossa was unequalled in the world, even when
he coldly informed her that he would never trust her, now dared to say
before Zoroaster, almost before Nehushta herself, that the princess was
the more beautiful of the two. The one man wounded her in her vanity,
the other in her heart.

It would not be possible at present to be revenged upon the king. There
was little chance of eluding his sleepless vigilance, or of leading him
into any rash act of self-destruction. Besides, she knew him too well
not to understand that he was the only man alive who could save Persia
from further revolutions, and keep the throne against all comers. She
loved power and the splendour of her royal existence, perhaps more than
she loved Zoroaster. The idea of another change in the monarchy was not
to be thought of, now that Darius had subdued Babylon. She had indeed a
half-concerted plan with Phraortes to seize the power in Media in case
the king were defeated in Babylonia, and the scroll she had so
imprudently forgotten that very morning was merely an order to lay
aside all such plans for the present, since the king had returned in
triumph.

As far as her conscience was concerned, Atossa would as soon have
overthrown and murdered the king to gratify the personal anger she felt
against him at the present moment, as she would have wrecked the
universe to possess a jewel she fancied. There existed in her mind no
idea of proportion between the gratification of her passions and the
means she might employ thereto; provided one gratification did not
interfere with another which she always saw beyond. Nothing startled her
on account of its mere magnitude; no plan was rejected by her merely
because it implied ruin to a countless number of human beings who were
useless to her. She coldly calculated the amount of satisfaction she
could at any time obtain for her wishes and desires, so as not to
prejudice the gratification of all the possible passions she might
hereafter experience.

As for injuring Zoroaster, she would not have thought of it. She loved
him