he came.

battalions, and spread terror and slaughter wherever The Assyrians seeing themselves thus attacked on all sides, lost courage and fled in disorder. As soon as the battle was over, generosity and humanity resumed their empire in the breast of Cyrus. He was sensibly touched with seeing the field covered with dead bodies. He took the same care of the wounded Assyrians as of the Medes, and gave necessary orders for their cure. They are men, said he, as well as we, and are no longer enemies when once they are vanquished. The emperor, having taken his precautions to prevent such irruptions for the future, returned to Ecbatana.

Mandane, being soon after obliged to leave Media and return to Cambyses, would have taken her son with her, but Astyages opposed it. Why, said he, will you deprive me of the pleasure of seeing Cyrus? He will here learn military discipline, which is not yet known in Persia. I conjure you, by the tenderness which I have always shewn you, not to refuse me this consolation." Mandane could not yield her consent but with great reluctance. She dreaded leaving her son in the midst of a court which was the seat of voluptuousness. Being alone with Cyrus, "My son, said she, Astyages desires that you should cotinue here with him; yet I cannot without concern resolve to leave you. I fear lest the purity of your manners should be stained, and you should be intoxicated with foolish passions. The first steps to vice will seem to be only innocent amusements, a well-bred compliance with received customs, and a liberty which you must allow yourself in order to please. Virtue may come by degrees to be thought too severe an enemy to pleas

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ure and society, and even contrary to nature, because it opposes inclination; in a word, you will perhaps look upon it as a matter of mere decency, a politic phantom, a popular prejudice, from which men ought to get free, when they can indulge their passions in secret. Thus you may go from one step to another, till your understanding be infatuated, your heart led astray, and you run into all sorts of crimes."

"Leave Hystaspes with me, replied Cyrus; he will teach me to avoid all these dangers. Friendship has long accustomed me to open my heart to him, and he is not only my counsellor, but the confidant of my weakness." Hystaspes was an experienced commander, who had served many years under Astyages, in his wars against the Scythians and the king of Lydia, and had all the virtues of the ancient Persians, together with the politeness of the Medes. Being a great politician and a great philosopher, a man equally able and disinterested, he had risen to the first employments of the State without ambition, and possessed them with modesty. Mandane being persuaded of the virtue and capacity of Hystaspes, as well as of the advantages her son might find by living in a court that was no less brave and knowing in the art of war than polite, obeyed Astyages with the less regret. She began her journey soon after, and Cyrus accompanied her some leagues from Ecbatana. At parting she embraced him with tenderness. "My son, said she, remember that your virtue alone can make me happy." The young prince melted into tears, and could make no answer; this was his first separation from her. He followed her with his eyes, till she was out of sight, and then returned to Ecbatana.

Cyrus continued at the court of Astyages without being infected by it. This however was not owing to the precautions of Mandane, the counsels of Hystaspes, or his own natural virtue, but to love. There was then at Ecbatana a young princess named Cassandana, related to Cyrus, and daughter of Pharnaspes, who was of the race of the Achemenides. Her mother dying, her father, who was one of the principal Satrapes of Persia, had sent her to the court of Astyages, to be there educated under the eye of Ariana queen of the Medes. Cassandana had all the politeness of that court without any of its faults; her wit was equal to her beauty, and her modesty heightened the charms of both; her imagination was lively, but directed by her judgment; a justness of thought was as natural to her as a gracefulness of expression and manner; the delicate strokes of wit, with which her easy and cheerful conversation abounded, were unstudied and unaffected; nor were the acquired accomplishments of her mind inferior to her natural graces and virtues; but she concealed her talents with so much care, or discovered them with so much reserve, that every thing in her seemed the work of pure nature. She had entertained a particular regard for Cyrus from the first moment she had seen him, but had so carefully hid her sentiments as not to be suspected.

Proximity of blood gave Cyrus frequent opportunities of seeing her and discoursing with her. Her conversation polished the manners of the young prince, who insensibly acquired by it a delicacy, with which, till then, he had been unacquainted. The beauties and virtues of the princess produced by degrees in his soul all the motions of that noble passion, which softens the

hearts of heroes without lessening their courage, and which places the principal charms of love in the pleasure of loving. Precepts, maxims and severe lessons, do not always preserve the mind from the poisoned arrows of sensuality. Virtue does not render the heart insensible, but it often happens that a well-placed love is the only security from dangerous and criminal passions.

Cyrus enjoyed, in the conversation of Cassandana, all the pleasures of the purest friendship, without daring to declare his love; his youth and his modesty made him timorous. Nor was it long before he felt all the pains, disquiets and alarms, which ever attend upon such passions, even when they are most innocent. Cassandana's beauty created him a rival; Cyaxares felt the power of her charms; he was much about the same age with Cyrus, but of a very different character; he had wit and courage, but was of an impetuous, haughty disposition, and shewed already but too great a propensity to all the vices common to young princes. Cassandana could love nothing but virtue, and her heart had made its choice. She dreaded more than death a marriage which should naturally have flattered her ambition. Cyaxares was unacquainted with the delicacy of love. His high rank augmented his natural haughtiness, and the manners of the Medes authorised his presumption; so that he used little precaution or cerimony in letting the princess know his passion for her. He immediately perceived her indifference, sought for the cause of it, and was not long in making the discovery. In all public diversions she appeared gay and free with him, but was more reserved with Cyrus. The guard she kept upon her

self gave her an air of constraint, which was not natural to her. She answered to all the civilities of Cyaxares with ready and lively strokes of wit; but when Cyrus spoke to her, she could hardly conceal her perplexity.

The prince of Persia, being little skilled in the secrets of love, did not interpret the conduct of Cassandana in the same manner with his rival. He imagined that she was pleased with the passion of Cyaxares, and that her eyes were dazzled with the lustre of that prince's crown. He experienced alternately the uncertainty and hope, the pains and pleasures of a lively passion. His trouble was too great to be long concealed; Hystaspes perceived it, and said to him: For some time past I have observed that you are thoughtful and absent; I believe I see into the cause of it; you are in love, Cyrus; there is no way to vanquish love, but to crush it in its birth. You are ignorant of its wiles, and the dangers into which it leads; at first it enchants with its sweetness, but in the end it poisons. It passes in the beginning for nothing more than a homage paid to merit, and a sentiment worthy of a tender and generous heart, by little and little the soul loses its vigor, the understanding is bewildered, and the intoxication augments; that which seemed in its birth an innocent inclination and a lovely passion, becomes on a sudden all fury and madness. Cyrus, touched to the quick by these words, hearkened to them with great uneasiness; he frequently changed color, but durst not make any answer. Hystaspes, knowing that examples make a deeper impression than reasoning, related to him the history of Zarina and Stryangeus; in which we have an instance of the fatal