it sounded like the scream of a coming death.

"It is the Druksh of the mountains!" said one.

"It is the howling of wolves," said another, a Median woman from the
Zagros mountains.

"The war-cry of the children of Anak is like that," said a little Syrian
maid, and her teeth chattered with fear.

As they listened, crouching and pressing about their royal mistress in
their terror, they heard below in the road, the sound of horses and men
moving quickly past the foot of the gardens. It was Atossa and her
train, hurrying along the highway in the direction of the fortress.

Nehushta suddenly pushed the slaves aside, and fled down the path
towards the palace, and the dark women hurried after. One of them
stooped and picked up the Indian knife and hid it in her bosom as she
ran.

The whole truth had flashed across Nehushta's mind in an instant. Some
armed force was collecting upon the hills to descend in a body upon the
palace, to accomplish her destruction. Atossa had fled to a place of
safety, after enjoying the pleasure of tormenting her doomed enemy to
the last moment, well knowing that no power would induce Nehushta to
accompany her. But one thought filled Nehushta's mind in her
instantaneous comprehension of the truth; she must find Zoroaster, and
warn him of the danger. They would have time to fly together, yet.
Atossa must have known how to time her flight, since the plot was hers,
and she had not yet been many minutes upon the road.

Through the garden she ran, and up the broad steps to the portico.
Slaves were moving about under the colonnade, leisurely lighting the
great torches that burned there all night. They had not heard the
strange cries from the hills; or, hearing only a faint echo, had paid no
attention to the sound.

Nehushta paused, breathless with running. As she realised the quiet that
reigned in the palace, where the slaves went about their duties as
though nothing had occurred, or were likely to occur, it seemed to her
as though she must have been dreaming. It was impossible that if there
were any real danger, it should not have become known at least to some
one of the hundreds of slaves who thronged the outer halls and
corridors. Moreover there were numerous scribes and officers connected
with the government; some few nobles whom Darius had left behind when he
went to Shushan; there were their wives and families residing in various
parts, of the palace and in the buildings below it, and the