lete defiance. He stationed his
soldiers, therefore, on the walls, and his sentinels in the watch
towers, while he himself, and all the nobles of his court, feeling
perfectly secure in their impregnable condition, and being abundantly
supplied with all the means that the whole empire could furnish, both
for sustenance and enjoyment, gave themselves up, in their spacious
palaces and gardens, to gayety, festivity, and pleasure.

Cyrus advanced to the city. He stationed one large detachment of his
troops at the opening in the main walls where the river entered into
the city, and another one below, where it issued from it. These
detachments were ordered to march into the city by the bed of the
river, as soon as they should observe the water subsiding. He then
employed a vast force of laborers to open new channels, and to widen
and deepen those which had existed before, for the purpose of drawing
off the waters from their usual bed. When these passages were thus
prepared, the water was let into them one night, at a time previously
designated, and it soon ceased to flow through the city. The
detachments of soldiers marched in over the bed of the stream,
carrying with them vast numbers of ladders. With these they easily
scaled the low walls which lined the banks of the river, and
Belshazzar was thunderstruck with the announcement made to him in the
midst of one of his feasts that the Persians were in complete and full
possession of the city.

CHAPTER IX.

THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.

B.C. 608

The Jewish captivity.--Jeremiah and the book of Chronicles.--Incursions
of Nebuchadnezzar.--Denunciations of Jeremiah.--Predictions of
Jeremiah.--Exasperation of the priests and people.--Defense of
Jeremiah.--He is liberated.--Symbolic method of teaching.--The wooden
yoke and the iron yoke.--The title deeds of Jeremiah's estate.--The
deeds deposited.--Baruch writes Jeremiah's prophecies.--He reads them
to the people.--Baruch summoned before the council.--The roll sent
to the king.--The roll destroyed.--Jeremiah attempts to leave the
city.--The king sends for Jeremiah.--He is imprisoned.--Jeremiah cast
into a dungeon.--The king orders him to be taken up.--Jerusalem
besieged by the Babylonians.--Capture of the king.--Captivity of the
Jews.--The prophet Daniel.--Cyrus takes possession of Babylon, and
allows the Jews to return.--Assembling of the Jews.--The number
that returned.--Arrival of the caravan at Jerusalem.--Building t