"Do you know every step of the road which leads to Ecbatana?"
"Oh yes! yes!" exclaimed the Persian with a contented laugh. "How should I not know it? Every grain of sand in that desert ... every roadside well.... Artaban knows the meaning of the birds' song, hears the grass growing, and the waters flowing under the earth. He will run before thine army, nosing the scent, tracing the road. Believe me, in twenty days all Persia, as far as the Indies and the ocean, shall be thine!"
The heart of the Emperor began beating violently.
"Can this be the miracle I was waiting for?" he mused. "In twenty days, Persia shall be mine!"
He could scarcely breathe at the thought.
The monster, kneeling before him, murmured.
"Hound me not away from thee! Like a hound shall I remain lying crouched at thy feet! From the moment I saw thee, I loved thee, Lord of the Universe, because thou art the proudest of men! Oh, that thou wouldst walk over my body, that thou wouldst trample on me, and I would lick the dust from thy feet, chanting: 'Glory, glory to the son of the Sun, to the king of the East and of the West, Julian!"
He kissed the Emperor's feet; and the two slaves prostrating themselves also, repeated after him, "Glory, glory, glory!"
"But what to do with the ships?" thought Julian aloud to himself. "Leave them unarmed in the hands of the enemy or keep them?"
"Burn them," breathed Artaban.