“It is well, Mardux. Bid them rise to their knees.”
Captain Mardux roused the prostrate men with his toe and made them assume a kneeling posture. From this position, they glanced with ferret eyes at the King and his supporters. They were evidently greatly impressed, but their sullen countenances exhibited no fear. Gobryas now appeared with an interpreter, a man of Bactra who had conducted trading expeditions over the great plains in more peaceable days. Thereupon the following colloquy occurred between the King and one of them:
“Who are you and whence come you?”
“We are messengers of the Queen of the Massagetæ. We come from her encampment, a day’s journey eastward.”
“What seek you?”
“We come to greet the Great King, Cyrus, whose power even the gods cannot withstand. Behold! our King is dead on yonder field, and the King’s son is dead. Our people are broken. The bodies of our slain choke the great river. Only old men and children are left. Who can withstand Cyrus? Like the lightning and the whirlwind he sweeps up from the south! He smites and men are not! We come to tender unto him a handful of earth, a broken twig, and a cup of water, and to ask his pardon, that we may henceforth be his men and live under the shadow of his arms.”
“Cyrus, the Great King, sleeps and we cannot awaken him. Behold me, the King of Iran, Hystaspis! I will receive your tokens of submission.”
“It is well! We know of you, O King of Iran, surnamed the Just. Have we not heard of your strong arm and most just and merciful heart? If it be permitted, we will arise and present to you our tokens of submission, asking mercy for our remnant of people.”
“It is permitted!”
The men arose. One produced a small casket of carved wood inlaid with ivory, and opening it so that it revealed the brown earth of the desert therein, he solemnly placed it in the outstretched hand of the King. Another produced a twig of wood plucked from a stunted oak, and another a small jar of water, which were solemnly received and passed on to Otanes by the King, who then said: