nted
lovers!

Meanwhile, Darius had built himself a magnificent palace, below the
fortress of Stakhar, in the valley of the Araxes, and there he spent the
winter and the spring, when the manifold cares of the state would permit
him. He had been almost unceasingly at war with the numerous pretenders
who set themselves up for petty kings in the provinces. With unheard-of
rapidity, he moved from one quarter of his dominions to another, from
east to west, from north to south; but each time that he returned, he
found some little disturbance going on at the court, and he bent his
brows and declared that a parcel of women were harder to govern than all
Media, Persia, and Babylon together.

Atossa wearied him with her suggestions.

"When the king is gone upon an expedition," she said, "there is no head
in the palace. Otanes is a weak man. The king will not give me the
control of the household, neither will he give it to any one else."

"There is no one whom I can trust," answered Darius. "Can you not dwell
together in peace for a month?"

"No," answered Atossa, with her winning smile, "it is impossible; the
king's wives will never agree among themselves. Let the king choose some
one and make a head over the palace."

"Whom shall I choose?" asked Darius, moodily.

"The king had a faithful servant once," suggested Atossa.

"Have I none now?"

"Yea, but none so faithful as this man of whom I speak, nor so ready to
do the king's bidding. He departed from Shushan when the king took
Nehushta to wife--"

"Mean you Zoroaster?" asked Darius, bending his brows, and eyeing Atossa
somewhat fiercely. But she met his glance with indifference.

"The same," she answered. "Why not send for him and make him governor of
the palace? He was indeed a faithful servant--and a willing one."

Still the king gazed hard at her face, as though trying to fathom the
reason of her request, or at least to detect some scornful look upon her
face to agree with her sneering words. But he was no match for the
unparalleled astuteness of Atossa, though he had a vague suspicion that
she wished to annoy him by calling up a memory which she knew could not
be pleasant, and he retorted in his own fashion.

"If Zoroaster be yet alive I will have him brought, and I will make him
governor of the palace. He was indeed a faithful servant--he shall rule
you all and there shall be no more discord among you."

And forthwith the king issued a proclamation that wh