in battle, and perpetuated his modes of extreme punishment in the bass-reliefs on his palace walls. Thereon may be seen the helpless captive thrust through with a spear, and his tongue torn from his mouth; a conquered king beheaded on the field of battle; a prisoner led to execution with the head of a friend suspended about his neck; a captive flayed alive; and the victors returning home, each one holding by its hair the head of some less fortunate combatant. No marvel the prophet called Nineveh "a bloody city."

It is a venerable saying, and confirmed by all history, that "with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." The sword of conquest was to pass into other hands. The day of retribution had come. Asshurbani-pal was to witness the decline of a monarchy which he had crowned with glory. The end of his great empire was at hand, not from inherent weakness or premature decay, but from a combination of circumstances, which he was powerless to resist. Coming from the frozen regions of the North, the brave, the cruel, the countless Scythians overran the richest portions of Assyria, besieged and plundered many of the oldest cities, rich in the accumulated stores of ages, and wantonly burned the noblest palace of the empire. They found it a garden; they left it a wilderness. In their barbarous cruelty, they flayed their enemies alive; they drank their blood; they stripped the scalp from the skull, to be a trophy on their horse's bridle, and of the skull they made a drinking-cup. Against such a foe, Asshur-bani-pal could not successfully contend. But he was permitted to see the departure of an invader he had failed to conquer. Although aged, he might have restored his empire to somewhat of its former greatness; but, after a reign of fortytwo years, he died, and was succeeded by his son Saracus,

destined to be the last king of ancient and renowned Assyria.

The enemies of the father were the enemies of the son. The Medes were prepared to renew their effort for the conquest of the Assyrian empire. Their leader was the skillful and daring Cyaxares, who had for his allies the Susianians, so often defeated by the kings of Assyria. To provide against the impending danger, Saracus resolved to command in person the defenses of his capital, and to dispatch his general, Nabopolassar, to Babylon, to defend the provinces of the South. But the young king had not provided against a foe in the person of his chosen general. Taking advantage of the difficulties that sur rounded his monarch, Nabopolassar joined the allies, and received as a reward for his treachery the daughter of the Median king, to be the wife of his eldest son, the celebrated Nebuchadnezzar. The forces of the allies, under the joint command of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, marched against Nineveh, and besieged the imperial city. Never was a beleaguered town more bravely defended. If we may credit Diodorus, the allied army numbered more than four hundred thousand. The siege lasted during three years. In the third year, the floods accomplished what the enemy had failed to effect. Superstition hastened a result which embattled hosts could not attain. The king gave heed to an oracle which had told him to fear nothing till the river became his enemy. The swollen and overflowing Tigris had destroyed two miles of the city wall. The oracle was revered as divine. Bereft of faith, conscious that all the means of resistance were exhausted, and inspired by despair, Saracus resolved to burn his palace, and perish in the flames thereof. Amidst the smoke and flame of the royal abode, the allied forces entered the city on the side which the

floods had breached, and, having plundered it of its wealth, left it a desolation.

Two Hebrew prophets had foretold the fall of the empire, the destruction of the capital, and the present desolate appearance of the site thereof. In a strain of invec tive, astonishing for its richness, variety, and energy, the seer of Elkosh had denounced the Assyrians, and described the capture and destruction of Nineveh. His prophecy is "The Burden of Nineveh;" wherein he says, "I will make thy grave, for thou art vile;" and, "Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery." Its hunting-parks and royal menageries, wherein the kings indulged in the pleasures of the chase, are referred to in designation of the place: "Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?" As if he himself were there, he repeats the orders to prepare to resist the approaching foe: "Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strongholds; go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brickkiln." So vivid is his description of the strug gle that ensued, that one can almost see and hear what then transpired: "The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings. He shall recount his worthies they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared." Bridging over, as it were, the intervening century, the prophet is an eye-witness to the taking of the city, and chronicles aforehand what subsequently oc

curred. Did the floods destroy the river wall of the city? "The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved." "The gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies." Did Saracus burn his palace? "There shall the fire devour thee." "The fire shall devour thy bars." "The palace shall be dissolved." Was there a panic in the captured city? "Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back." Were the victors enriched by the booty taken? "Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture." And the prophetic vision is projected far beyond the time of the siege, and the traveler of to-day is the witness to the fulfillment thereof in the desolation he beholds. "Nineveh is laid waste." "Thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them." Where once the proud city stood, a marsh is created by the overflow of the Tigris and the Khausser. "But Nineveh of old is like a pool of water."* Where formerly were the garden-homes of the Ninevites, between Kuyunjik and Nimroud, are now pasture-fields whereon the Arab shepherd feeds his sheep and goats. "And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her." And at the great centres, where were the magnificent palaces of the kings, where the "rejoicing city dwelt carelessly, and said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me," there "is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand."+

*Book of Nahum.

+ Zephaniah ii., 14, 15.

CHAPTER VI.

Discovery of the Royal Library of Asshur-bani-pal.-Rawlinson on the Nature and Style of Assyrian Writing.-Eminent Cuneiform Scholars. —Layard's History of the Process of Deciphering the Cuneiform Characters. -Triumphant Success.-Specimens of the Translated Tablets.-Promissory Note.-Bill for the Sale of Slaves.-Deed of Conveyance.-Religious Views of the Assyrians.-Forms of Prayer.-Death of a Righteous Man.-Harmony between the Bible and the Assyrian Records.-Daniel in the Lion's Den, and his Companions in the Fiery Furnace.-Modes of Punishment.-Chaldean Account of the Creation and of the Deluge by Berosus.-Original Account of the Flood by the Assyrians, Discovered by Mr. Smith, and his more recent Translation of the Same.--Copy of the Record. Its Agreement and Disagreement with the Bible.-Probable Future Discoveries, and their Bearing on Biblical Interpretation.-What the United States should do in the Work of Exploration.

TWENTY-FIVE hundred years after the destruction of the palace of Asshur-bani-pal, there was exhumed from the ruins thereof his "Royal Library." Consisting of more than twenty thousand inscribed terra-cotta tablets and fragments of tablets, it contains the records of the past, and evinces the literary taste of a king who excelled all his kingly predecessors in his love of learning, and in the advancement of the same. In the adjoining palace of his grandfather, Sennacherib, there had also been discovered a chamber, whose floor was covered with similar tablets to the height of a foot, and which room is supposed to have been the depository for such earthen documents. Some are broken, but many are entire; and the inscriptions thereon are as distinct to-day as when the impression was made upon the plastic clay. Some are slightly convex, and an inch in length; others are flat,