"Perhaps to-morrow, perhaps a month from now, and possibly not at all," Ezra replied. "It is never known in advance what he will do."
So the two friends passed into their captivity in the palace of Darius. As Ezra had said, their confinement did not prove a hardship to them. They were placed with hundreds of others in a remote wing near the river wall. They had baths, a large court for games and exercise, and abundance of slaves to provide for their wants. The Israelites among their guards supplied them privately with the news of the court. The winter months passed pleasantly enough, considering their situation. Clearchus, whose mind was filled with doubt concerning the fate of Artemisia, had his days of gloom and despair; but there was nothing to be done, and the light-hearted resignation of Chares saved him from utter despondency.
Of the numerous company held by Boupares to await the pleasure of the Great King, many knew not why they had been brought thither. Some of them had been there for years. Others received the royal summons on the morrow of their arrival and did not return. There were princes from the distant East, who had been suspected of a desire to throw off the Persian yoke; there were adventurers from Athens, merchants from Sicily, dusky chieftains from the sources of the Nile—a strange mixture of tongues and races, in, which every part of the huge, unwieldy empire was represented.
"I feel as though we were in the cave of Polyphemus," Clearchus said. "Who can tell whose turn will come next?"
"At any rate, the king is not a Cyclops—he cannot eat us," Chares replied. "Here comes Joel; now we shall get the latest news."
The young man approached them with the affectation of carelessness that it was necessary to assume to disarm suspicion. The palace swarmed with the Eyes and Ears of the king, spies and informers whose identity was unknown even to the most trusted of the courtiers. He must be cunning indeed who could frame and bring to fruition a plot that could escape their observation. A word from one of them, even though founded upon suspicion, often brought death.
"Well?" Chares said, when Joel reached at last the spot where they were standing, out of hearing of the others. "Repeat for us the murmurs of this whispering gallery."
"It is in fact a gallery in which every whisper is heard," the Hebrew said, smiling. "But there is great news to-day; Pharnaces has been condemned to death, and all his family must die with him."
"What has he done?" Clearchus asked. "Is he not one of the most powerful of the nobles and a favorite with the king?"
"Yes," Joel replied, "and why the sentence was passed no one knows excepting the king himself."