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"May Angra the old o!" and Gyges added: "Don't call iven false testi to appeal to the eternal stars, but Bartja put an end to this confusion of voices by saying in a decided tone: "A division of the bodyguard is coarden I am to be arrested; I cannot escape because I am innocent, and to fly would lay me open to suspicion By the soul of ht of the sun, Croesus, I swear that I a"

"Am I to believe you, in spite of my own eyes which have never yet deceived me? But I will, boy, for I love you I do not and I will not knohether you are innocent or guilty, but this I do know, you e is waiting at the gate Don't spare the horses, save yourself even if you drive them to death The Soldiers seem to knohat they have been sent to do; there can be no question that they delay so long only in order to give their favorite time to escape Fly, fly, or it is all over with you"

Darius, too, pushed his friend forward, exclai that the heavens themselves wrote in the stars for you"

Bartja, however, stood silent, shook his handsome head, waved his friends back, and answered: "I never ran away yet, and I round to-day Cowardice is worse than death inat the hands of others than disgrace myself There are the soldiers! Well met, Bischen You've come to arrest ood-bye to my friends"

Bischen, the officer he spoke to, was one of Cyrus's old captains; he had given Bartja his first lessons in shooting and throwing the spear, had fought by his side in the ith the Tapuri, and loved hi: "There is no need to take leave of your friends, for the king, who is raging like a madman, ordered ht be with you"

And then he added in a low voice: "The king is beside hie and threatens to have your life You must fly My men will do what I tell them blindfold; they will not pursue you; and I am so old that it would be little loss to Persia, if my head were the price of my disobedience"