Belshazzar to a sober sense of his danger, nor cause. him to reflect upon those solemn prophecies which had been revealed to the Babylonians in Daniel's explanation of Nebuchadnezzar's famous dream.

E. I suppose, mamma, he trusted to the strength of those thick and high walls which surrounded Babylon, and to her brazen gates, and thought it impossible that Cyrus should get at him there.

M. Most likely; and then he might have felt that he had nothing to fear from famine, even were the siege to last for twenty years, so well was the city supplied with all sorts of provisions, partly in stores laid up, and partly from the great quantity of cultivated ground which lay within the walls of their city: therefore Belshazzar and his people only laughed.

E. Does the Bible tell us all this?

M. No; the Bible does not mention all that I have told you, but we learn this, and much of what I have said, from valuable books of ancient history, which you will one day read for yourself. Cyrus continued his siege of Babylon for more than two years without any chance of being able to take the city, but at the end of that time he gained his great object. I will tell you how he managed it.

But first I must point out to you some very important things to which you must pay great attention. One is, that the destruction of Babylon was foretold most distinctly by the prophets. Thus Jeremiah, who lived, as we have seen, at the beginning of the captivity, that is, seventy years before this time, said expressly, that the Jews should serve the king of Babylon seventy years, and then he adds, " it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that

and guarding the city. Cyrus was, perhaps, aware that they were rather careless, and particularly, on one occasion, he was informed that Belshazzar and all the inhabitants of Babylon were about to hold a great feast which was kept in Babylon every year, and that it was usual, on these occasions, to spend the whole night in rioting and drunkenness: he determined, therefore, that he would try to surprise the city on that important night, thinking that he might never have a better opportunity. All his preparations were made very quietly on the day of the feast, when the people were all too busy to notice what was going on without the walls.

I have already told you, Edward, that the river Euphrates flowed through the middle of Babylon : along each side of it were great embankments of brick to keep the river in its channel, and to protect the city, and these walls, on the banks of the river, had in them brazen gates opening into the streets of the city, which might be shut in time of danger, so that if the people had been upon their guard, it would have been next to impossible for an enemy to have entered the city, even by this way; and then there was the river itself, which was far too deep for them to walk through. But this difficulty, great as it was, Cyrus managed to get over in the following way. To the west of the river there was a great lake into which the waters of the river could be turned, so as to leave the channel of it in the city nearly dry. On the day, therefore, of this great feast, Cyrus gave orders that at a set time in the evening, the waters of the river were to be turned into this great lake, and he took care to have his army ready at the walls of the city, to go up