ed upon the subject in the same light. Accordingly,
in pushing forward his plots toward their execution, he operated in
Media as well as Persia, He ascertained, by diligent and sagacious,
but by very covert inquiries, who were discontented and ill at ease
under the dominion of Astyages, and by sympathizing with and
encouraging them, he increased their discontent and insubmission.
Whenever Astyages, in the exercise of his tyranny inflicted an injury
upon a powerful subject, Harpagus espoused the cause of the injured
man, condemned, with him, the intolerable oppression of the king, and
thus fixed and perpetuated his enmity. At the same time, he took pains
to collect and to disseminate among the Medes all the information
which he could obtain favorable to Cyrus, in respect to his talents,
his character, and his just and generous spirit, so that, at length,
the ascendency of Astyages, through the instrumentality of these
measures, was very extensively undermined, and the way was rapidly
becoming prepared for Cyrus's accession to power.

During all this time, moreover, Harpagus was personally very
deferential and obsequious to Astyages, and professed an unbounded
devotedness to his interests. He maintained a high rank at court and
in the army, and Astyages relied upon him as one of the most obedient
and submissive of his servants, without entertaining any suspicion
whatever of his true designs.

At length a favorable occasion arose, as Harpagus thought, for the
execution of his plans. It was at a time when Astyages had been guilty
of some unusual acts of tyranny and oppression, by which he had
produced extensive dissatisfaction among his people. Harpagus
communicated, very cautiously, to the principal men around him, the
designs that he had long been forming for deposing Astyages and
elevating Cyrus in his place. He found them favorably inclined to the
plan. The way being thus prepared, the next thing was to contrive some
secret way of communicating with Cyrus. As the proposal which he was
going to make was that Cyrus should come into Media with as great a
force as he could command, and head an insurrection against the
government of Astyages, it would, of course, be death to him to have
it discovered. He did not dare to trust the message to any living
messenger, for fear of betrayal; nor was it safe to send a letter
by any ordinary mode of transmission, lest the letter should be
intercepted by some of Astyages's spies, and