THE SIEGE OF BABYLON.

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Scarcely had the word of doom left the Prophet's lips, before it was executed. In that night was King Belshazzar slain.

All through this reign there had been war between Babylon and the advancing power of the Medes and Persians. Cyrus, the Persian conqueror, had gradually been subduing the surrounding nations, and the provinces of this kingdom, until at length this ancient and mighty city was the only place that held out against his victorious arms. Two years had the siege of Babylon now lasted; but such was the strength of the city, so high and massive the walls, so impregnable the fortifications, so great the number of warriors, so abundant the supplies of all kinds of provisions, that no hope seemed to exist that ever Cyrus would be able to effect an entrance. He had at first attempted to take it by assault, but in vain ; and latterly had contented himself with cutting around it a trench, both wide and deep, hoping to starve it into surrender. But the city was provisioned for twenty years, and had besides open land enough within the walls, both for pasture and tillage, to supply the inhabitants for an indefinite period. The river, moreover, was here so broad, that ships keeping in the middle of the channel could enter the city both from above and below; and thus the besiegers had the mortification of seeing supplies

PERES being the radical word, the prefix u being merely the copulative "and"; PH and P are the same letter; the vowels are dubious, and the affix IN is the Chaldee plural termination. There is a sort of pun or paronomasia in the last term, the word PERES (DE) signifying Persia, as well as divide; and the plural form may have expressed, as in an enigma, this double application.

continually brought in, without being able to prevent it.

At length stratagem succeeded where force had failed. Having learned that a great festival was approaching, which the Babylonians were accustomed to keep by devoting the whole night to revelry, drunkenness, and all sorts of disorder, Cyrus determined to

surprise them in the midst of their debaucheries. One of the great works of Nebuchadnezzar had been the construction of an artificial lake above the city, for the sake of receiving the superfluous waters of the Euphrates in the annual floods. This lake was square, fifty-two miles every way, or upwards of two hundred in circumference, and in depth thirty-five feet; so that it was capable of holding an immense

THE LAST NIGHT OF BABYLON.

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volume of water. Into this lake Cyrus determined to draw off the water of the Euphrates, and enter the city through the bed of the river. In the evening of this eventful night he sent up a party of men to cut the dam that separated the river from the lake, and then dividing his forces into two parts, he posted one division at the point where the river entered the city, and the other where it issued from it. Some hours elapsed before the waters were sufficiently shrunken to be fordable, though the Persian general had opened also his great trench. About midnight, however, the soldiers were able to march in the diminished stream, and entered the city. In the neglect and disorder of the festival, the brazen gates that led from the streets to the river had been carelessly left open, so that the armies met with no impediment, but marched up into the streets. The two parties met, according to agreement, at the royal palace, where they surprised the half-intoxicated guards, and soon despatched them.

The king, trembling under the judgment just pronounced upon himself and his kingdom, heard the noise from within, and commanded some to see what it meant. But no sooner was the great gate opened, than the victorious Persians rushed in and took the palace; and the wretched monarch and his thousand lords were all put to the sword.

Thus did Jehovah avenge his own honour; and thus did he, according to his predictions, in the most marvellous manner, accomplish his purpose upon Babylon; and thus did he effect the deliverance of his people from captivity, after the lapse, as predicted, of exactly seventy years.

The glory of Babylon did not altogether depart when it was taken by Cyrus, though it then began to decline. The removal of the seat of empire to Shushan degraded it from the metropolis of the world to the head of a province; yet it still continued to retain its wealth, its grandeur, its temples, its sumptuous palaces, and its impregnable walls. The pride of strength impelled its inhabitants to revolt from Darius, the successor of Cyrus, and to raise the standard of independence. For several years they had been laying up stores, and when the Persian monarch brought up his army, they did not attempt to meet him in the field, but, shutting their hundred gates, defied his power. The horrible cruelty of putting the women and children to death, to save their provisions, leaving only one woman and a maid-servant in every house, did not avail them; for, by the stratagem of a pretended deserter from the Persian army, the gates were opened, after a siege of one year and eight months.

Now the queenly city was farther humbled; for the conqueror took away the hundred brazen gates, and beat down the lofty walls from two hundred cubits to a fourth part of that height. The spoil of the city was given up to the Persian army, and three thousand of the revolters were impaled.

A third time was Babylon taken by Alexander the Great. It no longer trusted in its fortifications, for the Persian commander surrendered it into the conqueror's hands without a blow. Its degradation was sufficiently proved when the inhabitants flocked upon the walls to see their new king take possession, unresisted, of their city. Here Alexander died soon afterwards.

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.

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Jehovah had declared that he would make Babylon "a possession for the bittern, and pools of water," and that "the sea should come up upon her, and she should be covered with the multitude of the waves thereof." The breaking down of the dam, by Cyrus, fulfilled in a remarkable manner these predictions; for when the lake was filled, the water of the river, still continuing to enter at the breach, soon overflowed and deluged the surrounding country, spreading ruin and desolation over the whole region to the west of the Euphrates. From the same cause, the current of the river that passed through the city was so greatly diminished, as scarcely to suffice for the smallest boats, though large vessels used to navigate it. Alexander, who intended to make Babylon the seat of his empire, began to rebuild the dam, with a design to remedy the evil; but his death put a stop to the work, which was never afterwards undertaken. Even now the western bank of the Euphrates, at this part, is not discernible, and the river flows unrestrained over the country, turning it into a vast morass, which remains covered with water long after the general subsidence of the stream.

This doomed city was again taken by Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, who ravaged the whole province. But its utter desolation was now at hand; for Seleucus soon afterwards built the city Seleucia, on the Tigris, which in a short time grew to vast size and grandeur. The shallowness of the Euphrates, and the inundation of the surrounding country, had made Babylon so inconvenient, that the new city soon drained it of its remaining inhabitants; a result which was aided by the political and municipal