Go to! Thou art young, but I am now nigh unto a hundred years old." "Nevertheless, if it be the will of the Great King, I must accomplish this thing," answered the young man.

"But I will swear by thy head and by mine that there shall no harm happen to the young princess; and if anything happen to her that is evil, may the Lord do so to me and more also.

Behold, I have sworn; let not my lord be troubled any more." But the prophet bowed his head and covered his face with his hands.

Aged and childless, Zoroaster and Nehushta were to him children, and he loved them with his whole soul.

Moreover, he knew the Persian Court, and he knew that if once they were taken into the whirl and eddy of its intrigue and stirring life, they would not return to Ecbatana; or returning, they would be changed and seem no more the same.