hat followed was dreadful by contrast. Darius stood
with his hand upon the arm of his chair, not understanding the words of
the fearful stranger; still less the mastering power those words had
upon the drunken priests. But his courage did not desert him, and he
feared not to speak.

"How sayest thou that thou art a prophet? Who art thou?" he asked.

"Thou knowest me and hast sent for me," answered the white-haired man,
in his calm tones; but his fiery eyes rested on the king's, and Darius
almost quailed under the glance. "I am Zoroaster; I am come to proclaim
the truth to thee and to these miserable men, thy priests."

The fear they felt had restored the frenzied men to their senses. One by
one, they rose and crept back towards the high priest himself, who had
struggled to his feet, and stood upon the basement of the mortar above
all the rest.

Then Darius looked, and he knew that it was Zoroaster, but he knew not
the strange look upon his face, and the light in his eyes was not as the
light of other days. He turned to the priests.

"Ye are unworthy priests," he cried angrily, "for ye are drunk with
your own sacrifice, and ye defile God's temple with unseemly cries.
Behold this man--can ye tell me whether he be indeed a prophet?"
Darius, whose anger was fast taking the place of the awe he had felt
when he first saw Zoroaster beside him, strode a step forward, with his
hand upon his sword-hilt, as though he would take summary vengeance
upon the desecrators of the temple.

"He is surely a liar!" cried the high priest from his position beyond
the altar, as though hurling defiance at Zoroaster through the flames.

"He is surely a liar!" repeated all the priests together, following
their head.

"He is a Magian, a worshipper of idols, a liar and the father of lies!
Down with him! Slay him before the altar; destroy the unbeliever that
entereth the temple of Ahura Mazda!"

"Down with the Magian! Down with the idolater!" cried the priests, and
moved forward in a body toward the thin white-haired man who stood
facing them, serene and high.

Darius drew his short sword and rushed before Zoroaster to strike down
the foremost of the priests. But Zoroaster seized the keen blade in the
air as though it had been a reed, and wrenched it from the king's strong
grip, and broke it in pieces like glass, and cast the fragments at his
feet. Darius staggered back in amazement, and the herd of angry men, in
whose eyes still blazed t