subjection of the Medes to the Persian dominion, a result which they
wished in every account to avoid. So, promising to watch vigilantly
for every indication of danger, they left the presence of the king.
The king then sent for Cyrus.

It seems that Cyrus, though astonished at the great and mysterious
changes which had taken place in his condition, was still ignorant of
his true history. Astyages now told him that he was to go into Persia.
"You will rejoin there," said he, "your true parents, who, you will
find, are of very different rank in life from the herdsman whom you
have lived with thus far. You will make the journey under the charge
and escort of persons that I have appointed for the purpose. They will
explain to you, on the way, the mystery in which your parentage and
birth seems to you at present enveloped. You will find that I was
induced many years ago, by the influence of an untoward dream, to
treat you injuriously. But all has ended well, and you can now go in
peace to your proper home."

As soon as the preparations for the journey could be made, Cyrus set
out, under the care of the party appointed to conduct him, and went to
Persia. His parents were at first dumb with astonishment, and were
then overwhelmed with gladness and joy at seeing their much-loved and
long-lost babe reappear, as if from the dead, in the form of this tall
and handsome boy, with health, intelligence, and happiness beaming in
his countenance. They overwhelmed him with caresses, and the heart of
Mandane, especially, was filled with pride and pleasure.

As soon as Cyrus became somewhat settled in his new home, his parents
began to make arrangements for giving him as complete an education as
the means and opportunities of those days afforded.

Xenophon, in his narrative of the early life of Cyrus, gives a minute,
and, in some respects, quite an extraordinary account of the mode of
life led in Cambyses's court. The sons of all the nobles and officers
of the court were educated together, within the precincts of the royal
palaces, or, rather, they spent their time together there, occupied in
various pursuits and avocations, which were intended to train them for
the duties of future life, though there was very little of what would
be considered, in modern times, as education. They were not generally
taught to read, nor could they, in fact, since there were no books,
have used that art if they had acquired it. The only intellectual
inst