re was a
strong detachment of Persian guards. If there were danger, some one must
have known it.

She did not know that at that moment the inhabitants of the lower palace
were already alarmed, while some were flying, leaving everything behind,
in their haste to reach the fortress higher up the valley. Everything
seemed quiet where she was, and she determined to go alone in search of
Zoroaster, without raising any alarm. Just as she entered the doorway of
the great hall, she heard the cry again echoing behind her through the
valley. It was as much as she could do to control the terror that again
took hold of her at the dreaded sound, as she passed the files of bowing
slaves, and went in between the two tall spearmen who guarded the inner
entrance, and grounded their spears with military precision as she went
by.

She had one slave whom she trusted more than the rest. It was the little
Syrian maid, who was half a Hebrew.

"Go," she said quickly, in her own tongue. "Go in one direction and I
will go in another, and search out Zoroaster, the high priest, and bring
him to my chamber. I also will search, but if I find him not, I will
wait for thee there."

The dark girl turned and ran through the halls, swift as a startled
fawn, to fulfil her errand, and Nehushta went another way upon her
search. She was ashamed to ask for Zoroaster. The words of her enemy
were still ringing in her ears--"alone with your lover;" it might be the
common talk of the court for all she knew. She went silently on her way.
She knew where Zoroaster dwelt. The curtain of his simple chamber was
thrown aside and a faint light burned in the room. It was empty; a
scroll lay open upon the floor beside a purple cushion, as he had left
it, and his long white mantle lay tossed upon the couch which served him
for a bed.

She gazed lovingly for one moment into the open chamber, and then went
on through the broad corridor, dimly lighted everywhere with small oil
lamps. She looked into the council chamber and it was deserted. The long
rows of double seats were empty, and gleamed faintly in the light. High
upon the dais at the end, a lamp burned above the carved chair of ivory
and gold, whereon the king sat when the council was assembled. There was
no one there. Farther on, the low entrance to the treasury was guarded
by four spearmen, whose arms clanged upon the floor as the queen passed.
But she saw that the massive bolts and the huge square locks upon the