ensued, of which we possess no details; our
informants simply tell us that the Babylonian monarch was completely
defeated, and that, while most of his army sought safety within the
walls of the capital, he himself with a small body of troops threw
himself into Borsippa, an important town lying at a short distance from
Babylon towards the south-west. It is not easy to see the exact object
of this movement. Perhaps Nabonadius thought that the enemy would
thereby be obliged to divide his army, which might then more easily be
defeated; perhaps he imagined that by remaining without the walls he
might be able to collect such a force among his subjects and allies as
would compel the beleaguering army to withdraw. Or, possibly, he merely
followed an instinct of self-preservation, and fearing that the soldiers
of Cyrus might enter Babylon with his own, if he fled thither, sought
refuge in another city.

It might have been supposed that his absence would have produced anarchy
and confusion in the capital; but a step which he had recently
taken with the object of giving stability to his throne rendered
the preservation of order tolerably easy. At the earliest possible
moment--probably when he was about fourteen--he had associated with him
in the government his son, Belshazzar, or Bel-shar-uzur, the grandson
of the great Nebuchadnezzar. This step, taken most likely with a view to
none but internal dangers, was now found exceedingly convenient for
the purposes of the war. In his father's absence Belshazzar took
the direction of affairs within the city, and met and foiled for a
considerable time all the assaults of the Persians. He was young and
inexperienced, but he had the counsels of the queen-mother to guide and
support him, as well as those of the various lords and officers of
the court. So well did he manage the defence that after a while Cyrus
despaired, and as a last resource ventured on a stratagem in which it
was clear that he must either succeed or perish.

Withdrawing the greater part of his army from the vicinity of the city,
and leaving behind him only certain corps of observation, Cyrus marched
away up the course of the Euphrates for a certain distance, and there
proceeded to make a vigorous use of the spade. His soldiers could
now appreciate the value of the experience which they had gained by
dispersing the Gyndes, and perceive that the summer and autumn of the
preceding year had not been wasted. They dug a channel